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THE CROWD OF ANIMALS BELOW CRIED, “TELL US SOMETHING MORE! 

TELL US SOMETHING MORE!” 


(Page 62 ) 








BILLY WHISKERS 
AT HOME 


BY 

FRANCES TREGO MONTGOMERY 

Author of “Billy Whiskers,” “Billy Whiskers’ Kids,” “Billy 
Whiskers’ Adventures,” “Billy Whiskers Out for Fun,” 
“The Wonderful Electric Elephant,” Etc. 



Illustrated by 

C. W. FRANK 

AND 

FRANCES BRUNDAGE 


THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY 

CHICAGO AKRON, OHIO NEW YORK 



MADE IN U. S. A. 














Copyright 1924 
by 

The Saalfield Publishing Co. 



DEC 19 1924 

©Cl A 81 4308 


r> k 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGB 

I The Chums Back Home.7 

II Sal Scrugs Makes Trouble.17 

III Sal Scrugs Defies Shep.27 

IV An Invitation to a “Welcome Home” Party . . 35 

V The “Welcome Home” Party.47 

VI The Brazilian Bull Fight.55 

VII Billy Personifies Neptune.63 

VIII Stubby Relates His Experience with Seals . . 71 

IX Button is Speaker.79 

X Billy Runs Away.85 

XI An Exciting Day for Billy.91 

XII The Twins are Stolen.101 

XIII Trouble over Ginger Cookies.109 

XIV The Chums Have a Day Off.117 

XV Butting Matches . ..129 

XVI The Ducks Grow' Dizzy-Headed.135 

XVII The New Electric Washer.141 

XVIII Catching the Thanksgiving Turkey . . . .151 

XIX Billy Becomes a Movie Actor ....... 161 



















ILLUSTRATIONS 


The crowd of animals below cried, “Tell us something more! Tell 
us something more!” 

Why did the king look so different? This was not the Neptune 
they had expected to see. 

Seeing Mr. Robinson dangling there, Billy gave him a mighty butt 
that shoved him all the way through. 

Billy surprised Augusta by butting her right over his head, and she 
landed in the trough with a great splash. 

“Save me quickly, or it will be too late!” gobbled the turkey. 

Mr. Watson’s hired man soon had a rope around Billy’s neck. 



Billy Whiskers at Home 

CHAPTER I 

THE CHUMS BACK HOME 

NE morning in early spring Mr. Watson rolled up the 
shade at his bedroom window to see what kind of 
weather was promised for the day when, glancing over 
to the lane, whom should he see running down its long 
stretch but Billy Whiskers, Stubby and Button. 

“Am I seeing things or is that really and truly my old Billy 
Whiskers come back to the farm after being away all these years?” 
he murmured. 

“William, what are you talking about?” asked his wife, who was 
yet in bed. 

“Come to the window and see whether or not the goat, dog and 
cat running along our lane are our old pets Billy, Stubby and 
Button,” he replied. “But of course they must be, for where in 
the wide world would one ever find three such animals traveling 
together?” 

By this time Mrs. Watson was in her kimono and slippers and 
at the window. “I don’t see him,” she said at last. 



7 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

“You don’t? Down there where the lane runs into the barn¬ 
yard,” said her husband. 

“Oh, yes, I see him now! And do look at the way all the cows, 
horses, chickens and even Old Shep and Matilda, our tortoise shell 
cat, are rushing to meet those three. Talk about animals not hav¬ 
ing sense and feelings! Why, they are almost eating their old 
friends alive! The way they are all rubbing noses and fussing over 
them to show their joy at seeing them once more! I feel like hug¬ 
ging them myself! Where do you suppose they have been all these 
years?” Mrs. Watson asked. 

“I don’t know, but I would give a good deal if those three could 
talk and tell us where they have kept themselves and the experiences 
they have had for I wager my best hat they have had some very 
exciting adventures with many hardships thrown in. I must hurry 
and dress and then go out to see them,” said Mr. Watson. “I don’t 
want them to think I am not as glad to see them as my animals 
are.” 

“Wait a few minutes and I will go with you,” said his wife, 
bustling about. 

When Billy, Stubby and Button saw Mr. and Mrs. Watson com¬ 
ing, they ran to greet them. Billy nearly baaed his head off to 
show his delight, while Stubby twisted his body into hard knots and 
wiggled his stub of a tail so fast one could scarcely see it. As for 

3 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

Button, he rubbed himself against them until he almost wore the 
skin off his back. 

“Well, we are glad to see you back,” said Mr. Watson, “and we 
hope you are going to stay with us and not run off right away. My 
dear, you take Stubby and Button to the house and give them a big 
breakfast while I do the same for Billy here at the barn. My sakes 
alive, whom do we see coming on the run from behind the barn but 
the whole Billy Whiskers family! The procession is headed by 
Nannie, Billy’s dear little wife. From the surprise so plainly 
shown in all their faces they could not have known he was going to 
arrive.” 

“Look, William, look! From the way they are greeting one 
another one would think they were humans instead of animals!” 

“I tell you what, my dear, you see before you six of the finest 
full-blooded Angora goats you could find in a lifetime. They are 
all so big, strong and handsome, and have such silky hair and grace¬ 
ful horns. Billy and Nannie are pure white and perfectly mated. 
So too are Billy Junior and Daisy, his wife. Billy Junior’s coal 
black hair makes a fine contrast against Daisy’s coat. As for the 
Twins, they are their father and mother over again, Punch being 
black and Judy white.” 

“Now Billy is back, we can expect exciting things to happen,” re¬ 
marked Mrs. Watson, “for wherever he is, there is always somc- 

9 


Billy Whiskers at Home 



thing going on. See, William, what is next to welcome them I 
How those pigeons and doves cluster around them, some even alight¬ 
ing on their backs! As they are the mail carriers for the animals, 

before night every farm for 
miles around will hear the 
glad tidings that Billy 
Whiskers, Stubby and But¬ 
ton are back home. See! 
Didn’t I tell you? There 
they go now, flying in all 
directions! Here, Stubby, 
Stubby, Stubby! Here, But¬ 
ton, Button, Button! Come 
with me and get something 
to eat!” she called as she 
turned toward the house. 
“Oh, grandfather, 
stand still 
and watch 
me,” said Punch to 
Billy Whiskers. “I 
can jump so high! See, I can jump over your back!” and he ran off 
a few yards and then made a flying jump over Billy’s back. “I have 


io 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

learned to do that while you have been away on your travels.” 

‘‘That was pretty good, but next time raise your feet a little higher 
for you nearly took a chunk out of my back,” warned Billy. 

“I can beat Punch jumping,” said Judy, “though he says I can’t 
because I am a girl. Watch me and see if I can’t!” But just when 
she jumped, Billy moved away and she leaped high in the air with 
nothing under her. 

“Oh, grandfather, what made you move? Now stand still and I 
will do it again.” 

“No, thank you! I’ll take your word for it that you can jump 
higher than your brother; I can’t spare any more of my flesh to-day.” 

“Daddy, you stand still then and let me jump over you,” pleaded 
Judy. 

Billy Junior heaved a sigh of resignation and stood still while 
Judy leaped over him, her feet held so close to her body that there 
was a full foot between his back and her feet. 

“See! Don’t I jump higher and better than Punch?” she asked 
proudly. 

“Oh, children,” exclaimed Daisy, their mother, “don’t always be 
vying with one another. All you do these days is to argue. Can’t 
you play without quarreling and fussing?” 

“We don’t fuss or quarrel, mother. We just tell each other what 
we think and want.” 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

“Well, don’t do it so emphatically then,” replied their mother. 

“Oh, there goes Farmer Jones’ flock of goats down the road to 
the pasture. Can’t we go with them? It is such fun to play with 
them in their pasture.” 

“Yes, you may go if their man will let you. But I am afraid when 
he sees you he will drive you back,” replied Daisy. 

“Well, if he does, we will wait until he gets them in the pasture 
and goes home. Then we will run down the road and crawl under 
the fence. There is a big hole we know about that is large enough 
for us to crawl through, for we were down there yesterday and 
crawled through and played with them all the afternoon. Come 
on, Punch, let’s go and try it.” 

And off they scampered, while Billy Whiskers followed Mr. Wat¬ 
son to the barn door where he waited for him to bring out his break¬ 
fast. He soon returned with a peck of carrots and some oats, and 
while Billy ate, the animals and fowls stood around and asked ques¬ 
tions as to where he had been, and eagerly listened as he told what 
he had seen. 

When Stubby and Button reached the house with Mrs. Watson 
they found Bridget waiting at the door—the cook who had been 
there when they left the old farm. 

“Well, well, well!” she exclaimed on seeing the two, “and is it 


12 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

yczselves I see wid me two eyes? And glad I am to see ye! Though 
I know yer heads must be filled wid devilment ye have picked up 
while yez were away. And yez had enough to last ye all yer life 
when yez lift us! Unless time has put some sinse in yer heads, 
which I hope it has! But here! Yez didn’t come home to hear me 
talk but to git something to eat. Just wait around a minute and 
I’ll give yez the best breakfast yez have had since yez lift, and one 
that’ll make yezselves stick out like barrels!” 

“Bridget is the same old girl, isn’t she?” said Stubby. 

“Yes; her bark is worse than her bite,” replied Button. “Yum, 
yum! I smell something delicious cooking, and here she comes with 
two plates heaped full of food!” 

They had just finished their meal when Bridget came rushing out 
of the kitchen with the broom held high over her head, exclaiming, 
“Come along, Stubby and Button, and hilp me drive out that cross 
old cow that is always coming into our yard and eating up our 
flowers!” 

The cow was standing in the middle of the flower bed making 
havoc of it, and Bridget charged on her with the broom, but instead 
of stopping eating, the cow lowered her head and made for Bridget 
on the run. Bridget turned and fled toward the porch, the cow close 
at her heels. She was just ready to hook the woman when she her- 

n 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

self had a surprise for she found herself facing two angry eyes and 
a pair of horns twice as sharp as her own. And before she could 
hook whatever this was before her, she felt two sharp horns running 



into her side and pushing her sideways. She came to the conclusion 
that it was about time for her to make a hasty departure. As she 
turned toward the gate she found herself hurried through it by a 
little dog barking and snapping at her heels and then hanging to her 
tail. Though she tried again and again to kick him, she could not 

x 4 




Billy Whiskers at Home 

succeed, for when she kicked out with one foot, he was always snap¬ 
ping at the other leg. He chased her down the road for a mile and 
then with a parting warning not to come into that yard again, he let 
her go. 

For the rest of the day the Chums wandered around the farm to 
see what improvements had been made and to meet the new animals 
that had been bought by Mr. Watson while they had been away. 
And when they went to bed that night, all three declared there was 
no place in all the whole wide world like the dear old farm. 


15 


















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WHY DID THE KING LOOK SO DIFFERENT? THIS WAS NOT THE NEPTUNE 

THEY HAD EXPECTED TO SEE. 


(Page 65) 





































































’ 

























































CHAPTER II 


SAL SCRUGS MAKES TROUBLE 

ARLY the next morning from far and near came pi¬ 
geons, blackbirds, swallows, robins and every other 
kind of bird that makes its home in Wisconsin in the 
summer. They had heard the news that the Chums 
had returned and now hastened to extend them a welcome on their 
own account as well as to deliver greetings from the animals on the 
different farms roundabout who were unable to get away, as most 
of them were either fenced in their pastures or shut up in their 
stables. 

One homely, raw-boned, cross-eyed cow named Sal Scrugs whom 
no one liked and at whom every one threw stones because she was 
always in mischief of some kind, said she was not going to send her 
message but was going to deliver it in person as these three were the 
only animals that had ever been nice to her. They understood and 
knew that the reason she behaved so badly was that everyone had 
always been so mean to her and never given her a kind word because 
she was so homely. She could not help being homely, and it had 
only soured her disposition to be treated so and called horrid names 

17 



Billy Whiskers at Home 

when it was no fault of her own. She said, “Very well, if people 
treat me badly, I will be more tricky and disagreeable than they ever 



thought of being.” So from calfhood she had tried to be mean. 
She would jump all the fences she could, trample people’s gardens 

18 













Billy Whiskers at Home 

and eat their early vegetables. Then too she would milk herself so 
when they wanted to milk her she would be dry. Another trick was 
to break down the fence and let all the other stock out. Con¬ 
sequently when she said she was going to see Billy, all the animals 
where she lived knew she would do it by jumping the fence in the 
pasture and running off. 

“Listen, friends,” she said. “I want to ask you a question. How 
many of you would like to go to see Billy Whiskers, Stubby and 
Button if you had the chance?” 

“We all would, I know,” spoke up an old brindle cow. 

“Surely we would!” piped up all the others. 

“Very well, then. When I am down in the pasture away from the 
house where no one can see me, I will break down the fence and you 
can all get out and run down the road and see the Chums before any 
one knows you have left the pasture.” 

“Oh, that will be fine!” said one of the young heifers. “I would 
just love a lark like that! Anything to cause a little excitement! 
We lead such a quiet life here with no change from day to day, 
month in and month out.” 

“Yes, but how will you like it if, after we are out, Mr. Watson’s 
hired man sics Shep on us and he bites your legs and hangs on your 
tail? I tell you that dog has sharp teeth and gives a vicious bite for 
he has snapped at me more than once when I have not walked fast 

19 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

enough to suit him. You must remember I was born on the Watson 
farm and lived there until I was four years old, when I was sold to 
Mr. Jones.” 

“I don’t care! I am willing to take the chance and the bite too 
for a little fun.” 

“Here comes the hired man to drive us to pasture,” said Sal 
Scrugs. 

Very sedately all the cows walked down the road to the pasture 
and after the man had shut them in, they lingered around the gate 
until he disappeared from sight over the brow of the hill. Then 
with a merry Ha! Ha! bellow in her throat, Sal Scrugs said, “Fol¬ 
low me along the fence until we come to the weak place in it. 
There are two loose posts that with a good hard push will fall 
right over into the road and then we can all pass through the opening 
and be free. Free! Oh, it is glorious to feel free!” 

Sal was about to throw her weight against the weak section of 
the fence when one of the cows said: 

“Hold on a minute! I think I hear a wagon coming down the 
road. We must wait until it passes or we will be caught.” 

So they patiently waited until a big lumbering wagon had passed 
and disappeared over the hill. Then with a rush Sal ran to the 
fence and threw herself against it with all her might. Down it went 
with a crash and over toppled the posts as well. This made a great 


20 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

wide place for them to go through. They were in such a hurry to 
get out before any more wagons came along to stop them that two 
or three of the cows fell down in their mad haste to be on the way to 
see Billy, Stubby and Button. One cow hurt herself badly as she 
rushed over the fallen rails and she had to walk with a limp all the 
way to the Watson farm. 

Billy and Nannie were on top of the old strawstack, their favorite 
resting place, for from there they could see all that went on in the 
barnyard directly under them and for two miles all around them. 

Billy had just finished telling Nannie of one of his narrow escapes 
when, looking down the road, what should he see but all of Farmer 
Jones’ small herd of cattle coming on the run down the road. In¬ 
deed, before he could tell Nannie to look, they were turning in at 
the Watson lane. 

“I wonder who is chasing them. It must be some stray dog for 
their own dog Nig knows cows should never be made to run,” said 
Billy. 

“But I see no dog, or man either, Billy,” said Nannie. “See, they 
have spied us up on the stack and are making for it.” 

By that time the foremost cow had reached the stack and each one 
was mooing to express the joy it gave her to see Billy back again and 
finding him as well and as strong as when he had left. 

“A speech! A speech!” they called. 


21 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

Billy stood up on the strawstack where all could see and hear him. 
“Very dear and old tried-and-true friends, I cannot tell you with 



what joy I see you all again, and the welcome home you are giving 
me touches my heart most deeply.” 

Just at this point his speech was interrupted by Mr. Watson and 


22 












Billy Whiskers at Home 

Shep running into the barnyard to drive out the stray cows. 

“Well, I declare!” exclaimed Mr. Watson. “Instead of strange 
cattle these belong to Mr. Jones. They must have broken out of 
their pasture. Come, Shep, we will drive them back. Not so 
fierce there, Shep! There is no need to snap at them and hang on 
their tails, for you see they are going peacefully enough. And you 
must never snap or bite at an animal when it is going along quietly 
minding its own business.” 

“Good-by, Billy! Good-by! Anyway, we saw you before we 
were driven back, and we are glad we broke down the fence and 
came.” 

“Go away from me, you nasty dog! Can’t you see I am hurrying 
as fast as I can with a lame leg?” said the young cow whose aunt 
had warned her if she ran away a dog might snap at her heels and bite 
her. “I seem to be the only one that was hurt or at whom the dog 
really took a nip. But I don’t regret coming in the least, for I never 
saw Billy Whiskers before. I had heard so much about him that I 
wanted to see for myself if he was as wonderful as all the cows, 
horses, sheep, pigs and goats said he was. And he certainly is. My, 
but he looked handsome as he stood up on that strawstack address¬ 
ing the crowd below, with his long white beard blowing in the wind 
and the sunshine making his silky white hair glisten like silver! 
Well, here we are back at our pasture. You may be sure I shall look 

23 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

out as I walk over those old rails this time so that I don’t hurt my¬ 
self again.” 

When the cows were all in, Mr. Watson tried to patch up the open¬ 
ing but he could not succeed in making the posts stand up, so he said 
to Shep, “Shep, you stay here and watch the cattle. Don’t let them 
come through the opening. I am going to tell Mr. Jones about his 
broken fence. Now mind, don’t let a single cow out!” and whis¬ 
tling, he turned and walked toward the Jones farmhouse. 

He was scarcely out of sight when Sal Scrugs said, “Watch me 
pass that dog! If he tries to stop me, I shall send him a mile down 
the road and then if he comes at me again I shall hook him up in the 
air twenty-five feet.” 

“Now look here, Sal Scrugs, you are courting trouble for your¬ 
self! Shep won’t hurt you if you behave, but just let any cow try to 
hook him and he will bite in earnest. What is more, he will bring 
you back to the herd if it takes him all day. Any animal he starts 
out to get, he gets if it takes all day to do it,” said the old cow that 
used to live at Mr. Watson’s, and therefore knew Shep and his ways 
well. 

“Pooh! I’ll see a dog try to stop me! I always out-run them for, 
as you know, I have extra long legs which help me to jump fences 
and out-run dogs. And as I always keep in practice, I don’t get out 

24 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

of breath like most cows do. Then too my bag is small so it never 
bothers me by swinging from side to side when I run.” 

“Just the same you will find Shep is an unusual dog, and he would 
consider it a disgrace to allow a cow to get away from him after he 
had been told to watch it.” 


25 




CHAPTER III 


SAL SCRUGS DEFIES SHEP 

NYHOW I am going to try it,” determined Sal. “I 
can but fail, and it will give the rest of you stay-at-homes 
something to bet on—whether I win or the dog.” 

“Well, if you come home with bleeding ankles and half 
your tail pulled out, don’t say no one warned you not to go.” 

“Look! Shep is half asleep, stretched there in the middle of the 
broken fence, thinking to himself that none of the cows will even 
try to pass him! I’ll just go pretty near the opening, eating as I 
go along, until I see him close his eyes. Then I’ll take a running 
jump over the fallen rails and off down the road I’ll go. I’ll take 
the road from home as there is a nice thick woods down that way 
where I can hide until he stops hunting for me,” said Sal. 

“I tell you you aren’t counting on Shep being different from other 
dogs who have chased you. But you will find there are dogs—and 
dogs. Shep belongs to the kind that never give up.” 

“I don’t care. Tee hee! Keep your eyes open for I am off!” 

Five minutes later there was a sharp bark from Shep and when 
the cows stopped eating to look up to see what caused it, all they saw 

27 



Billy Whiskers at Home 

was a thick cloud of dust, with Sal Scrugs running like mad and a 
bundle of yellow hair following in leaps and bounds. 

“Oh, dear!” said Sal Scrugs to herself. “That dog is gaining on 
me! I thought that with my long legs I could out-run any dog, but 
this one is coming like the wind and is surely gaining on me. My 
only hope is to jump this barbed wire fence which he can’t crawl 
through, and make for the woods at the other side of the field where 
he can’t see me.” 

Just as Shep reached her and gave one nip at her heels, taking out 
a small piece of flesh, Sal jumped the fence. It being higher than 
she calculated, instead of landing on her feet as usual, she caught her 
foot on the top wire, which threw her on her nose and she fell, nearly 
breaking her neck. But in a minute she was up and off again across 
the field, running faster than ever for now she began to know for 
a certainty that unless she gained the shelter of the woods and hid in 
the thick underbrush, she was lost and Shep would bite her unmerci¬ 
fully unless she went back to the herd. And she did not care to re¬ 
turn and endure their laughter at her expense after all her vain 
boasting. 

While she was running across the lot for dear life, Shep was bark¬ 
ing in anger at the closely woven barbed wires that kept him from 
the pursuit. He tried jumping the fence, but could not and was 
about to run around the field when he spied a small hole under the 

28 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

fence. In a jiffy he was scratching, making the dirt fly out in a 
shower behind him as he made the hole large enough for him to 
squeeze under. And just as Sal Scrugs entered the woods 
and turned her head to see where Shep was, expecting to 
see him running aimlessly up and down 
the road, she saw him coming like mad, 
already half way across the field. With 
a quick plunge into the deep bushes, she stood still, 
hoping to hide from him. She scarcely breathed for 
fear of betraying her presence, but 
alas, she had forgotten that dogs do 
not have to trust to 
their eyes to find 
things, but that 
they are given a 
sense of smell which 
aids them wonderfully. 

The minute Shep en¬ 
tered the woods, he saw some 
jbushes were slightly moving, so he went directly to them and as he 
approached the scent of a cow grew stronger and stronger. Peering 
through the bushes, he spied Sal Scrugs standing stock still, staring 
back at him, her eyes distended with fear. For by this time Sal 

?? 




Billy Whiskers at Home 

Scrugs knew she had found her master and was frightened to death. 

“Here you, Sal, come out of those bushes and march straight back 
to the pasture, or I’ll nip your ankles until they bleed!” barked Shep. 

“I’ll do nothing of the kind, for you don’t belong to our farm and 
consequently it is none of your business what I do!” she answered. 

“Oh, yes, it is my business because my master told me not to allow 
a single cow out of the pasture while he was gone. You heard him 
say it! Still you thought you would go, just to be mean. Now I’ll 
bark three times and on the third bark you chase yourself toward 
home or I’ll show you. And what is more, I’ll bite you every time 
you try to get away from me. Bow, wow, wow!” 

By the second “Wow!” Sal Scrugs bounded out of the bushes in 
the opposite direction from the pasture and hooked her way through 
the thick bushes straight for a little lake that lay sparkling in the 
sunshine. 

“Here, you long-legged, cross-eyed cow, don’t think you are going 
to lose me in these woods! For you are not, even if the thorns and 
briars do pull the hair off my skin!” 

On, on, faster and faster went Sal Scrugs, straight for the lake, 
though the hide on her back was scratched by the long, cruel thorns 
on the thorn apple trees under which she ran. Anything was better 
than being bitten by Shep! She had just come out of the woods to 
a smooth piece of ground where she expected to make great headway 

30 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

and out-distance Shep when, chancing to look behind her, she saw 
Shep within thirty feet of her, running with mouth open and show¬ 
ing to advantage his glistening teeth. 

“Oh, my! He is going to catch me! But I will try one more way 
to dodge him. I will run into the lake.” 

She increased her speed but to no avail. She could hear him com¬ 
ing closer and closer and just as she reached the shore of the lake she 
felt his warm breath on her legs and expected to feel his sharp teeth 
sink in her ankles when, with one plunge, she threw herself into the 
deep water and began to swim for the opposite shore. Shep did 
likewise, and her hope that he would not follow her into the water 
was blasted. As she swam, he barked to her: “If you don’t turn 
toward the pasture when we land, I will bite a big piece out of your 
hind leg, and no fooling about it, either!” 

On hearing this, Sal said to herself, “I guess he means it so I might 
just as well give up now and go back to the pasture as to wait until 
I am all bitten up. I guess my aunt was right. Shep never gives 
up chasing an animal until he has it where he wants it.” 

Consequently when she landed on the opposite shore, she cut sticks 
for the home pasture as fast as her legs would carry her. 

What was Shep’s surprise when he returned to find that while he 
had been gone all the other cows had walked out of the pasture and 
were now ambling leisurely down the road away from home! But 

3i 


Billy Whiskers at Home 



it took only a few minutes for him to run past them and head them 
toward home again. He had just succeeded in getting them all back 
in the pasture and was taking a much needed rest when he saw Mr. 
Watson, Mr. Jones and their two hired men coming down the road 
to mend the fence. When they arrived, Mr. 
Watson noticed that Shep was wringing wet 
and he said, “Why, Shep, how in the world 
did you manage to get so wet? There is 
no water nearer than the lake, and I do 
not think you would leave the cows you 
were in charge of long enough to 
go for a swim.” But 
chancing to look up 


just then, he saw Sal 
Scrugs too was wet all 


over, and he exclaimed, “I think I begin to see light! That impish' 
cow of yours, Sal Scrugs, got out of the pasture and went over to 

32 






Billy Whiskers at Home 

the lake, and she and Shep have both been in the water. And I 
think if the truth were known, it was she who broke down the fence 
and let out all the other cows.” 

“I believe so, too,” replied Mr. Jones, “and this settles it. I am 
tired of her tricks and I am going to put her up for sale to-morrow. 
She never gave much milk, and I can’t fatten her for beef; no matter 
how much I feed her, she never takes on a pound of flesh. So why 
keep such a mean animal? Sal Scrugs, you hear that? You are to 
be sold to-morrow!” 

“Now don’t you wish you had taken your old aunt’s good advice 
and not broken down the fence?” twitted one of the herd. 

“No, I don’t! I have had some excitement, and I would just as 
soon be sold as not, for I am tired living my life among such old 
fogies as you! If I don’t like the people to whom he sells me, I shall 
jump the fence and run away.” 

“Yes, and if you keep that up much longer, you will find yourself 
hung up by one leg on a hook in a butcher shop one of these days. 
But I am only wasting breath talking to you,” said Sal’s aunt and she 
turned her back and walked off, shaking her head in dismay at the 
actions of her wayward niece. 


33 





CHAPTER IV 


AN INVITATION TO A “WELCOME HOME” PARTY 

HILE Billy Whiskers and his family were eating their 
breakfast the next morning, who should come flutter¬ 
ing down beside them but a beautiful fan-tailed pigeon 
from Mr. Smith’s farm, bearing an urgent invitation 
to Mr. and Mrs. Billy Whiskers, Mr. and Mrs. Billy Whiskers, Jr., 
as well as Stubby and Button, to attend that very night, as soon as 
the moon was up, a “welcome home” party Mr. and Mrs. Spotted 
Goat were giving in honor of the home-coming of Billy 
Whiskers and his Chums. The affair was to be held in the 
hollow between two high hills down in the pasture by the side of the 
little brook. And all the other animals on the Watson farm were 
likewise invited, as were those on the Jones farm. Even the pigs 
had been bidden to the feast of welcome! 

“Thank Mr. and Mrs. Spotted Goat for their kind invitation to 
myself and family. Give them our regards and tell them we all 
accept, including Stubby and Button, and that I personally consider 
it a great honor for them to give such a party.” 

“Oh, grandfather, can’t we go too?” asked Punch. 

35 



Billy Whiskers at Home 

“Do say yes, grandfather!” pleaded Judy. “We want to go so 
much! We love to play with the little goats and lambs on the Smith 
farm, and we won’t be a bit of bother or get into mischief even once.” 

“No, truly, we won’t!” chimed in Punch. 

“I am sorry, but I could not take you out to an evening party. Be¬ 
sides, no children are included; just grown-ups.” 

“Well, but we won’t bother them. We can get some of the little 
kids and lambs and go away off from the party to play. Oh, do let 
us go! We never have been to a big party like that,” pleaded Judy. 

“Children,” commanded their mother, “stop teasing. You cannot 
go and that settles it. Besides, what did I tell you, Judy? If you 
do not break yourself of this habit of teasing, I will punish you 
severely. It is a most annoying habit for a kid to have. I simply 
won’t permit you to do it. What is more, you need not go off pout¬ 
ing for that is as bad as teasing.” 

The Twins walked off behind the barn with gloomy faces, but 
they had scarcely turned the corner when Judy’s face brightened, 
and she exclaimed, “I tell you what let’s do, Punch! Let’s run away 
and go over to Mr. Smith’s farm and watch them prepare for the 
party and play with Mrs. Spots’ twins. We can have a fine time 
before the party begins. Almost as much as if we went to it, for we 
won’t have the grown-ups there to say, ‘Don’t do that!’ to us all the 
time.” 


36 


Billy Whiskers at Home 


“Oh, Judy, you are a brick for thinking of that plan! It will be 
lovely. I’ll go ask mother if we may go down in the pasture and 

play in the brook,” replied Punch. 
“If we ask her, they won’t be look¬ 
ing for us all the time and discover 
we are gone. You know our pas¬ 
ture adjoins Mr. Smith’s where the 
party is to be held, and the same 
brook runs through both. We can 
walk up the stream and crawl un¬ 
der the wire that stretches 
across the stream to sep¬ 
arate the two pas¬ 
tures. And if we 
should happen 
to get on the 
other side of 
the wire when 
wading, no one could blame 
us for not noticing that, 
could they?” 

“Of course not! Run along and ask her. I’ll wait for you here.” 
“Mother, where are you?” called Punch. 

37 










Billy Whiskers at Home 

“Over here by the watering trough,” she answered. 

“Well, mother, may Judy and I go down in our meadow and play 
by the brook? It is so nice and cool down there and we love to 
stand in the water and watch the fish swim around.” 

“Yes, if you will be careful and stay away from the holes, for you 
could easily drown in one of them, the water is so deep. But you 
well know where they are, don’t you? Each one has a long stick 
driven in it, standing well out of the water, with a red flag on it. So 
you can’t help knowing where they are. Good-by, and come home 
early for luncheon.” 

“I won’t promise about that. We may be having too good a time 
to come home and we can eat some nice green grass and peppermint 
down by the stream, which will be a better luncheon than you will 
have. So don’t look for us, mother.” 

“Very well! Be good children, and be careful about the deep 
holes.” 

“All right. We won’t go near the holes. Good-by!” and Punch 
was off with a skip and a jump around the barn. 

“Hurrah! Hurrah! We may go, Judy! Come along! I’ll 
race you down the hill.” 

“It is very nice of Mr. and Mrs. Spots to give a party for us and 
such a big one, too, for there are dozens of animals on the farms 

38 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

round about us, and they have invited them from every farm that 
adjoins theirs,” said Billy. 

“Yes, but you must remember, my dear, that not one-third of them 
will be able to come, as they cannot get out of their stables and pas¬ 
tures on account of the high fences and the locked doors of the 
stables.” 

“Yes, I know that. But isn’t it a shame they cannot get away, for 
they all have such quiet lives that it would do them good to have a 
little excitement now and then.” 

“Here come some of the sheep and goats to ask you not what they 
shall wear, having only one dress to their names, but how in the 
world they are to get the dirt off their wool and hair.” 

“Good-morning, Mr. and Mrs. Billy Whiskers! Isn’t it lovely 
that the Spots are going to give a party for you?” said Mrs. Wire 
Hair, one of the goats. “But I am in despair. Just look at my 
hair! It is all stained with yellow clay. And worse than that, with 
black muck, too. I nearly stranded in the quagmire down by the 
pond yesterday and now I am a sight!” 

“None of us looks particularly well,” said another. “What say 
you we have a swimming party and all go down to the brook and 
stand in the water until the stain and dirt is washed off?” said Billy 
Whiskers. 


39 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

“A splendid idea! We knew if we came to you, Mr. Whiskers, 
you would think of some way we could look respectable at the party.” 

In less than half an hour, had you stood on the brow of the hill 
in the Watson barnyard and gazed down into the valley, you would 
have seen cows, horses, pigs, goats and sheep all standing in the pond 
into which the stream widened. Every animal had a happy face, for 
was not the water washing off the grime in fine shape? Billy’s and 
Nannie’s long white hair would soon look like spun silk. As for 
Button, he sat on a flat rock on the bank and licked his fur until it 
shone as if made of black satin. 

All this time what do you suppose those mischievous Twins were 
doing but helping the Spots family carry things to eat down to the 
pasture where the party was to be? There was a shock of fresh 
green cornstalks in the Spots barnyard and this delicacy Mr. and 
Mrs. Spots, their children and several horses and cows were pulling 
out of the shock and carrying in their mouths down by the stream 
where the party was to be given. If the Twins had been asked to do 
this at home, they would have carried one mouthful and then com¬ 
plained that their legs were weary with climbing the hill. But to 
do it for other people was fun, and they never complained once, nor 
stopped until Mrs. Spots said they would not dare to carry away any 
more or it would be missed by Mr. Smith when he came into the 
barnyard. 


40 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

As it was, Mr. Smith did wonder why it was so many of his horses, 
cows and pigs stayed in the barnyard that morning instead of going 
out into the pasture to eat the nice fresh clover. But finally he passed 
it by, thinking they just happened to remain as in all probability they 
had come in from the pasture to get a drink of nice cool water at the 
trough by the pump. 

“I ^el sick to my stomach, Punch. Let’s go home,” said Judy. 

“Oh, no! You will feel better in a few minutes. You have been 
eating too many of those luscious green cornstalks. They act on 
goats just as too much candy acts on children. Go over and lie 
down on that nice soft turf by the haystack. Keep in the warm 
sun for a while and then if you do not feel better, I will take you 
home.” 

“Come,” said one of the other goats, “let’s go over with Judy and 
tell stories. My legs ache from going up and down that hill so many 
times carrying those cornstalks that I can scarcely stand. Besides, it 
will not be so lonesome for her and she will forget she feels ill.” 

When they were all lying down in a wide circle around Judy, Jill, 
one of Mrs. Spots’ twins, said, “Now Punch, you tell the first story 
for it will be an interesting one, ’cause you can tell us one you have 
heard from Grandfather Whiskers.” 

“Oh, yes, do!” exclaimed Jack, the other twin. 

“Oh, no,” replied Punch. “I am tired of hearing him tell the 


4i 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

same ones over and over again to the different animals that call. 
You two tell stories instead.” 

“But we do not know any interesting ones!” they objected. 

“Go ahead, Punch, and tell them about the time Grandfather went 
up in a hydroplane over the city of Rio de Janeiro in South 
America,” urged Judy. 

“Yes, do, do! That will be most exciting!” they all exclaimed. 

So Punch began and their eyes were almost popping out of their 
heads at the thrilling experiences he was relating when they were 
nearly frightened out of their skins by a big cross dog running around 
the barn and suddenly appearing before them. For a moment he 
was as much surprised as they, for he had just come in with a farmer 
and was exploring things, as he had never been on this farm before. 
But in a minute he recovered himself and with a bark and a leap he 
landed in their midst. Such a hurrying and a scurrying as there was! 
Judy forgot she was ill and tried to climb up the haystack, steep as 
it was, but fell over backward, landing on the dog, frightening one 
as much as the other for a moment. On seeing the dog standing be¬ 
side Judy, Punch pitched on him, though he was afraid of big dogs. 
But he had been taught he must always protect Judy, as she was a 
girl. Now Punch had short baby horns, but they could hurt, and 
the first thing this great dog knew, two sharp horns were running 
into his side. He turned with a snarl, ready to bite whatever it was 

42 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

that was hurting him so, when lo! at that second a red cow with long, 
sharp horns came around the corner of the barn and seeing Punch 
about to be attacked by a strange dog, she gave one jump forward and 



the next thing that dog knew, he was going up in the air at the rate of 
thirty-five miles an hour. He thought he was never coming down, 
but at last he did, though to his dismay he landed on top of a shed. 
One of the little white calves that had been listening to Punch’s 



































Billy Whiskers at Home 

story was so panic-stricken that she fled, but instead of keeping her 
eyes open to see where she was going, she shut them tight. The con¬ 
sequence was she fell headfirst into a tub of red dye and when she 
stood up she was no longer a snow-white calf but a brilliant red one. 

Another calf was so frightened that she ran straight into the farm¬ 
house kitchen and fell down the cellar stairs. The cook, who heard 
the commotion, came to see who was stamping around on her freshly 
scrubbed floor. But she saw no one, though she did hear a groan of 
pain down in the cellar. 

“Who is there?” she called. 

No answer—just a groan came from below. 

She peered down the stairs, but no one was visible in the pitch 
black of the cellar. At last the cook gathered up courage enough to 
light a candle and go down two or three steps. 

On seeing the light, the calf was so frightened she forgot her pain 
and went rushing around the cellar, stumbling over and upsetting 
everything. All the cook saw was a big red monster with glaring 
eyes. She dropped the candle in her fright and fled. Out the 
kitchen door she went, loudly calling for help. In a jiffy Mr. Smith 
and the farmer whose dog had made all this trouble came running 
to discover the cause of the commotion. 

“There is something awful in the cellar! All hair and eyes! And 
it is running around upsetting everything!” she said. 


44 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

“Wait until I get a pitchfork to drive it out, and I will see what 
it is. Light a lantern for me,” Mr. Smith commanded. 

With a pitchfork in one hand and a lantern in the other, Mr. 
Smith started down the cellar stairs with the neighbor farmer close 
behind him brandishing a long whip in one hand and holding his 
dog by the collar with the other. 

The dog quickly smelt the calf, gave a jerk and down the stairs he 
bounded, knocking the lantern out of Mr. Smith’s hand, putting out 
the light and smashing the chimney. Then the hubbub began. The 
dog chased the calf around the cellar, giving her nips every once 
in a while that made the poor frightened beast bellow. At last the 
calf made for the stairs. Seeing a big red animal with blazing eyes 
come out of the darkness, the two farmers turned and fled. But the 
animal came after them, followed by the dog. When they were out 
in the light of day, Mr. Smith saw it was only a calf, but a very 
queer calf. By this time the calf was standing on the kitchen table 
right in the midst of the luncheon dishes. She had been so terrified 
by the dog that she had jumped on a chair and from there to the 
table. The dog was barking furiously and trying to get up on the 
table too. 

“Get out of here! You have made enough trouble for one day!” 
and the farmer grabbed his dog by the collar and dragged him out. 
Indeed, he literally had to drag him away from the calf. He whined 

45 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

and made a terrific fuss as he was dragged along, and it was only 
by tying him to the back of the wagon that his owner took him away. 

The moment the Twins saw the dog disappear into the house they 
had cut sticks for home, and never stopped running until they came 
to the pond where their father and mother and all the rest of the 
Watson farm animals were standing in the water. 

“What are you all standing in the water for?” asked Punch. 

“We are making ourselves clean for the party,” answered their 
father. “But where have you been? You look as if you had been 
standing in a lake too, you are so wet with perspiration.” 

“Oh, we have been racing down the hill to see which could reach 
here first,” easily replied Punch. 

“Well, you better lie down in the shade and cool off. Don’t you 
dare come into this cold pond until you are perfectly dry. If you 
do, both of you may have chills.” 

So off the Twins walked and lay down under a tree to watch the 
other animals. “My, Punch, but that was an awful scare! He 
frightened me so I am still trembling,” confessed Judy. 


46 


CHAPTER V 


THE “WELCOME HOME” PARTY 

T last it was nearly time to start for the party. The only 
thing there was to wait for now was for Mr. and Mrs. 
Watson to go to bed, as it would never do for the ani¬ 
mals to start and then have Mr. Watson come out to the 
barn and discover them all gone. 

To-night of all nights it seemed as if he would never turn out the 
lights. All eyes in the barnyard were watching the living-room, 
waiting for the lights there to be turned out and for those in the bed¬ 
room to be switched on. The window shades were up and the ani¬ 
mals could see Mr. Watson comfortably seated in his big armchair 
reading the evening paper, his wife near him busy with her knitting. 

“Oh!” exclaimed one of the young heifers, “I am growing so nerv¬ 
ous waiting I could kick down the barn doors! It is such a glorious 
evening I want to start early and stay late.” 

“There,” said another cow, “he has gone out to the pump to get his 
last glass of cold water before retiring, for I can hear the old pump 
handle squeak. But oh, dear me, he is sitting down again! He 

47 



Billy Whiskers at Home 

never does that! He always goes to bed directly after he drinks his 
glass of water.” 

“See, Mrs. Watson is holding up the sock she is knitting and she 
is pointing to the toe. I believe she is asking him to wait until she 
finishes it. Yes, that is surely what she has done, for he is taking up 
his paper again,” remarked a third. 

“I shall just die,” said the young heifer, “if they do not soon go 
to bed and let us get off. There are so many of us, why couldn’t 
some of us go on ahead? Then if he comes out, there would be 
plenty left and he would not miss those who have gone.” 

This was being discussed when oh, joy! the lights in the living- 
room went out and those upstairs flashed on. A minute after that 
the procession, Billy at its head, moved silently but quickly out of 
the barnyard and down the hill to the little stream in the meadow 
which they followed until it brought them to Mr. Smith’s farm as this 
was the same little brook that wandered through Mr. Smith’s pas¬ 
ture where the party was to be held. 

First came Billy and Nannie, then Billy Junior and Daisy, and 
then followed in pairs the pigs, sheep, young cattle, old cows and 
horses last. In this way the shortest went first and each could see 
over the heads of the animals in front of them. You never saw such 
a clean, glossy lot of animals as every one of them had spent most of 
the day in cleaning and shining their coats, either by taking a bath 

48 


Billy Whiskers at Home 


in the brook or rolling in the sand. Then to make themselves smell 
sweet, they had rolled in the mint bed by the 
stream or else crushed the sweet smelling gar¬ 
den pinks that had boldly pushed their heads 
through the garden fence. 

They had gone about half their way when in 
the dim light they saw Farmer Jones’ cattle 
hurrying helter skelter in their direction, like¬ 
wise bound for the party. They were coming 
in no regular order at all. First one would be 
ahead and then another. And their coats 
looked mussed and dirty. One white cow had 
great chunks of mud clinging to her sides. 

When the Jones cattle saw how beautifully 
clean and spick and span the Watson animals 
looked, they were so ashamed of their own ap¬ 
pearance that they felt like going home, and, in 
fact, the white cow did go back and clean up, | 
arriving much later. She could not face the 
glossy cattle while she was in such a mess. 

The leader of the Jones cattle was an old, old 
cow, and when she came up to Billy and saw 
how fine his procession looked, she gave a deep sigh and said, “I 

49 






Billy Whiskers at Home 

never thought of asking my cattle to clean up or to form into a 
procession, and here we come to the party looking just as we do 
every day. My, oh my! I can’t tell you how mortified I feel! But 
I assure you I never thought of cleaning up or of marching over in 
a dignified way instead of all rushing along pell-mell. But then 
you are young and up-to-date while I am old and set in my ways and 
how I am going to look never enters my head. I guess I am too old 
to be the leader of young stock and I shall resign my place to¬ 
morrow. Do you think we would have time to clean up a bit before 
we go to the party?” she inquired anxiously. 

“Certainly! There is lots of time. Just go down to the brook 
and wade in it a little while and you will even then have ample 
time to get to the party before it is late. We came early because 
the younger cattle were so impatient to be off that I consented to 
an early start,” said Billy. 

“Thank you so much, Mr. Whiskers, for your kind advice. I 
shall take it, and when we appear at the party at least we shall 
have the dust and dirt washed out of our hair, even if we do not 
shine like all of you. We won’t have time to let our hair dry 
and lick it down. What is more, when we do arrive, we will 
come in some sort of order, and not all helter skelter,” and she 
walked off to issue instructions covering what she planned to do. 

She really expected to have a great deal of trouble in persuad- 

50 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

ing her cattle to stop to clean themselves. But not so; they were 
every one glad to do so as they saw what a sorry sight they made 
compared to Billy’s procession. 

When Billy arrived, he took his stand beside Mr. and Mrs. Spots, 
who were receiving under an old gnarled weeping willow tree be¬ 
side the stream. He then presented to Mr. and Mrs. Spots those 
of his animals who had never met their host and hostess, after which 
the procession broke rank and wandered at will in little groups, 
mingling with the animals from the other farms. It was a very 
large party—the largest by far ever given by animals in these parts. 

About half an hour after Billy’s group arrived, the Jones cattle 
came, and you never saw such a difference in appearance in the way 
they looked now and in the meadow. 

The animals were having a most enjoyable time when suddenly 
they heard the most distressing baaing and groaning down in the 
meadow, but coming nearer and nearer as if the animal was run¬ 
ning. As they listened, they could distinguish the words “Mama, 
mama, save us, save us!” Daisy pricked up her ears and recog¬ 
nizing the voices, she was off with a bound. Her husband followed, 
and Billy Whiskers too. 

“What ever can be the trouble?” said Nannie. “The Twins 
wanted to come with us, but of course we would not permit that. 
Probably they have followed us and been frightened by something.” 

5 1 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

That is just what it proved to be. The Twins grew lonesome 
after their father, mother, grandfather and grandmother and all 
the farm animals had departed, so they decided to follow them but 
keep out of sight when they reached the party. But when they were 
in the meadow where the grass grew away over their heads, they 
became frightened and were debating whether or not to go back 
home when with a bound there came a wolf out of the tall grass. 
Now if there is one thing a goat fears more than all else, it is a wolf. 



The Twins let out a wild baa and began to run like mad toward 
the party, where they knew they would gain safety. As they ran 
they could feel the hot breath of the wolf and they were about to 
drop in sheer fright and exhaustion from running and crying when 
just before them they saw their grandfather, father and mother. 
With one bound Billy was beside them, ready to kill the grey wolf 
he saw close behind them. But when he looked a second time, 
instead of a wolf, he saw a neighbor’s big grey dog. He was also 

52 










Billy Whiskers at Home 

coming to the party and the Twins in their fright had mistaken 
him for a wolf. 

Daisy was determined to take the Twins right back home, but 
Mr. and Mrs. Spots insisted that she put them to bed with their 
children in the stable, where they could sleep in safety until the 
party was over. This was finally agreed upon, and when every¬ 
thing was quiet again, Billy was asked to give them a talk about 
his travels. 


S3 


CHAPTER VI 


THE BRAZILIAN BULL FIGHT 

FTER the calling of “Speech! A speech from Billy 
Whiskers!” had died down some, Billy climbed up to 
a shelf of rock that protruded from the brow of a hill 
overlooking the lower stretch of land where the party 
was in progress. From this vantage point he could be seen and 
heard by all. The moment he stepped forward and began to 
speak, there was dead silence and not a horse or cow so much as 
switched its tail to chase away the flies. 

“My dear friends, it gives me great pleasure to be back in your 
midst once more, and to have the opportunity to see and speak to 
you. My very dear and old friends, Mr. and Mrs. Spots, who 
have made it possible for me to meet you all this evening, have 
asked me to relate one or two of the experiences I had while away. 
I can assure you I have had many thrilling ones. But instead of 
telling you about them, I am going to describe one of the most 
peculiar sights I saw while in South America. 

“As you well know, wherever a country has been settled by the 
Spanish or the Portuguese, there bull fights have been introduced, 

55 



Billy Whiskers at Home 

as it is the national sport of those two countries. Consequently 
when I was in Rio de Janeiro and heard people talking about going 
to the bull fight on Sunday afternoon (they are always held on 
Sunday) I decided to see what they were like, though I did not 
relish the idea in the least as I dislike to see any kind of an animal 
hurt or abused. You see I had heard that a bull fight is one of 
the most cruel sports engaged in by any nation. Still I felt that 
as long as I was in a country where they had them, I had better 
go and see how they are conducted and what the people who attend 
these fights look like. If I found it too cruel, I could come away. 

“I followed the crowd going to the bull ring, and succeeded in 
slipping in between the people and finding a good place away up 
on the last tier of seats from which to witness the fight. 

“I had been there only a few minutes when with a blare of trum¬ 
pets a pair of double doors was thrown open and out rode a torea¬ 
dor on a coal black horse prancing in time to the music as he 
champed his bit while his rider bowed low to the audience. Be¬ 
fore him as he pranced around the ring went two trumpeters 
dressed in red velvet and silver lace, blaring away on their extra 
long beribboned trumpets. As for the toreador, he was costumed 
in black velvet and gold lace, and wore a three-cornered hat with 
a long flowing white ostrich plume, and carried a long spear 

56 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

held upright. Behind him marched the picadores and matadores. 

After this company once circles the ring, it is the custom for the 
toreador to take his place in the middle of the ring, facing the door 
through which the bulls enter the ring from their partially dark¬ 
ened stalls. The door from the stall into the ring is thrown wide 
open and seeing the bright light, the bull rushes for it, so that when 
he first enters the ring he is blinded by the sudden glare, and he 
stands, head erect, looking in all directions, puzzled which way to 
turn. 

“The first bull to enter on the day I was there was a magnificent 
jet black beast with long, pointed horns, though the points had 
been sawed off, as that is the law in Brazil. Also no horse or bull 
may be killed or injured. The toreador, picadores and matadores 
are there to protect the horse and to keep him from being dis¬ 
emboweled or injured in any way. They are permitted to tease 
the bull and throw long darts into the bull but not to injure him. 

“When I found this out I was delighted for now I could enjoy 
watching the fight and let my nerves quiet down. 

“As soon as the bull’s eyes were accustomed to the light, he spied 
the toreador on the horse facing him, and with a snort he began 
to paw the dirt and switch his tail. He charged on horse and man 
but he was not quick enough. The horse jumped to one side and 

57 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

the toreador threw a dart that sank into the bull’s hind quarter. 
With a quick turn the bull was after them again and for some little 
time they chased each other here, there and everywhere around the 
ring until the toreador had thrown another dart into him. 

“While the toreador was trying to make the darts stick in the 







bull’9 shoulders or haunches, the 
picadores teased him by shaking a red 
cape in his face or else throwing it in .iiiW 

front of him just when he was about to gore the horse. The bull 
took after the picadores and they had to run for safety, jumping 
over a medium high wall that surrounded the whole ring, and 
formed a very narrow passageway. It was built just high enough 
for a bull that is a good jumper to get over, but the passageway was 
»o narrow that if he went over straight, there was not sufficient room 





















Billy Whiskers at Home 

for the bull. This bull hung over the wall until he could twist him¬ 
self straight, which delay gave the picadores time to escape and they 
returned to the ring. This happened many times that day and made 
the audience howl with delight and clap their hands. As soon as 
the bull would get himself straightened out, he would run around 


j 



the enclosure until he came to an open door, and running through it 
he would find himself in the ring once again. 

“This performance continued with each bull until he would have 
two darts sticking in him and then another bull was brought on, 
and this one was led out by six cream-colored oxen with humps on 
their backs like water buffalo have. These oxen were trained to 

59 











Billy Whiskers at Home 

walk over to where the bull stood and quietly encircle him, so 
that he walked out in the midst of friends. 

“As many as eight or nine bulls were used in that one afternoon. 
Some of them would not fight at all, even though stuck with sharp 
darts and annoyed in every imaginable way. When one refused 
to fight, it was led out by the cream-colored oxen and another bull 
brought in. 

“The performance was concluded with a kind of burlesque show 
such as one might see at a circus. Two men dressed in suits made 
of thick rubber like automobile tires came into the ring. They 
were so clumsy in their suits they could scarcely waddle, and when 
a bull knocked them over, he could not hurt them. When they 
fell and he rolled them around, they simply pulled their heads into 
the suits much as a tortoise pulls its head into its shell, and let the 
bull maul them until he was driven off by the picadores. Then 
the picadores would help them to their feet as their suits made 
them so clumsy they could not get up if once they fell down. 

“These men made the bulls furious. They bellowed and 
stamped and swished their tails with anger, all of which tickled 
the crowd immensely. 

“Another thing they had that greatly pleased the audience was 
a paper ship under full sail. Four men got inside the ship and 
carried it around. It was a comical sight as the men’s legs showed 

60 


Billy Whiskers at Home 


below the ship where the water ought to be. They stood where 
the bull would see the ship the first thing on en¬ 
tering the ring. At first the bull was so aston¬ 
ished he simply stood still and stared at them. 

Then with a swish of his tail, he made for it at f 
full speed. A single onslaught shattered it and 
there was a grand melee of bull, men’s legs, sails 
and splinters. The bull was all tangled up in the 
sails, and while he was trying to extricate himself, 
a man on stilts and dressed in a long Mother Hub¬ 
bard and wearing a false face of Mother Hubbard 
and that good lady’s bonnet walked into the ring. 

For a while Mother Hubbard dodged the bull 
cleverly, but at last she stumbled and fell across the 
bull’s back. When the bull finally freed himself of 
his burden, the false face with the bonnet was still 
sticking between his horns, the dress and stilts trailing 
across his broad back, while the man impersonating 
Mother Hubbard was running for shelter back into 
the bull shed. 

“This was the last performance of the day and it 
sent the crowd home laughing instead of horrified as a real bull 
fight would have done. And I for one say that all bull fights should 

61 







Billy Whiskers at Home 

be like this one and no government should be permitted to hold such 
cruel and horrible ones as are given in Spanish countries.” 

Billy bowed low in conclusion and was about to leave the jutting 
rock he had used as a platform when the crowd of animals below 
cried, “Tell us something more! Tell us something more! We 
never travel nor see anything of the world, and it will be the greatest 
treat for us if you will tell us what you saw and did.” 

So Billy walked back to his place and proceeded to relate how 
he had personified King Neptune. 


62 


CHAPTER VII 


BILLY PERSONIFIES NEPTUNE 

HIS adventure took place while I was on the good ship 
Vandyck bound for South America,” began Billy. 
“As the ship neared the equator, there was great excite¬ 
ment on board for a fancy dress ball was being planned 
to welcome King Neptune when he boarded the ship as we glided 
over the equator. 

“Those of the passengers who had brought no fancy costumes with 
them had to improvise them out of things they had and by the help 
of borrowed finery, for at such a time travelers are more than will¬ 
ing to loan anything they possess to help piece out the costume of a 
fellow-passenger. Especially was this true on board the Vandyck, 
as prizes were to be given for the best costume made on board, and 
another for the costume truest to type, while honorable mention was 
promised to that person wearing the handsomest costume. 

“The ball was at its height when the ship’s bells rang out the hour 
of midnight, the dance was stopped and all eyes were turned toward 
the side of the ship over which Neptune was to appear and claim 
his throne. Then all the passengers were to walk before him and 

63 



Billy Whiskers at Home 

be presented by the court officials dressed in full court regalia. 
After the presentation, games were to be played and feats of skill 
performed before King Neptune for his amusement, after which 
refreshments were to be served and the gayety and dancing kept up 
until very late. 

“Generally one of the ship’s officers takes the part of Neptune, 
for you must know this ball is held on every trip the ship makes to 
South America. And very fine does he look with snow-white hair 
and flowing beard and long purple velvet robe with its ermine cape, 
to say nothing of the golden crown and all the other regalia of a 
really truly king, even to the golden staff tipped with Neptune’s 
trident. 

“But on this trip the officers had conceived the idea of dressing 
me up as king and seating me on the throne, as I have been trained 
to sit up and hold my fore legs down like arms. So the night the 
ball was in progress, the officers seated me on the throne while the 
guests were dancing. Once seated, they hurriedly draped the royal 
purple robe around me, fitted the golden crown on my head to hide 
my horns, tied the staff to my left leg which I rested on the arm of 
the golden chair of state, stuck a monocle in one eye, and as the 
ship’s bells ceased ringing at midnight, a page with a silver trumpet 
marched to the side of the ship where the guests were dancing and 
led the way to King Neptune’s throne, where they were presented. 

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SEEING MR. ROBINSON DANGLING THERE, BILLY GAVE HIM A MIGHTY 
BUTT THAT SHOVED HIM ALL THE WAY THROUGH. 

(Page 95) 


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Billy Whiskers at Home 

When the passengers raised their heads after the deep ceremonial 
bow of presentation, each one was impressed by a weirdness in King 
Neptune’s appearance. The more they gazed, the more pronounced 
was the strangeness. What 
could it be? There was the 
long white hair and 
beard, but the eyes 
had a peculiar 
twinkle in them 
and the nose 
was exceedingly 
broad. Why did 
the king look so 
different from all 
other times they had 
seen him? This was 
Neptune. Yet it was not 
the Neptune they had ex¬ 
pected to see. But they could not tarry in front of him and stare 
while in a procession, for after their ceremonial bow they must 
move on, giving place to others. 

“Once they had passed by the throne, the passengers quickly 
gathered in groups to discuss the queer looking Neptune. Every 

65 




Billy Whiskers at Home 



one had been presented when a great clatter was heard. Neptune 
had dropped his staff, and the next thing they knew, they were gaz¬ 
ing at the unusual spec¬ 
tacle of a king running 
on all fours from his 
throne, and as they 
looked, they saw 
him approach the 
side of the ship 
and plunge over 
its side. 

“It was not the ocean into 
which I, King Neptune, leaped but 
only the swimming tank at the ship’s 
side, just under the promenade deck, 
but they said afterward it looked exactly 
as if the king had jumped into the ocean. 
Every one ran to that side of the ship, 
expecting to see the king rising and fall¬ 
ing on the billows but no king could they see. Had 
they watched the swimming tank, they would have seen a goat being 
divested of his robes and crown by five or six sailors who were try- 


66 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

ing to save me from drowning, as I had become so entangled in my 
robes I could not swim. All the while the sailors were trying to 
keep me from drowning, other sailors were letting out the water 
as fast as it could be drained from the tank. 

“It was some time before the excited passengers could return to 
their dancing and march before the judges but it was finally ac¬ 
complished. They decided that the prettiest costume was worn by 
a sweet young girl representing a pink rosebud. The overskirts of 
her dress formed the petals of the rose, and she wore a wreath of 
buds in her sunny gold hair. The most handsome costume was that 
of a tall, stately brunette who appeared as the Queen of Sheba. 
Her garments had been brought from Egypt. The best outfit 
made from things picked up on board was a Turkish lady of the 
harem. She wore changeable yellow silk bloomers loaned by one 
of the ladies coming back from Turkey. Over them she wore a 
rainbow tinted scarf tied as a sash, with a crimson velvet jacket over 
a blouse with flowing white silk sleeves embroidered in gold, while 
over her head was thrown a pale silver-blue veil, thin and airy as a 
cloud, held in place by a gold band worn low on her forehead. On 
neck, wrists and ankles tinkled gold coins, while on her feet she wore 
bright red morocco slippers with sharp-pointed toes. She made a 
perfect favorite of the harem. The most original costume was 
fashioned entirely of newspapers and was called ‘current events.’ 

67 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

“They said the only drawback to the whole evening’s performance 
was the loss of Neptune’s robe which I had ruined by jumping 
into the water. But when the passengers found out that it was their 
old pet Billy Whiskers who had impersonated King Neptune, they 
thought it was so clever of me to sit on the throne for so long decked 
out in all that finery that they did not blame me for running away. 
They took up a collection to buy a new robe in the place of the one 
the water had ruined, and so, my friends, no harm came of the 
unusual evening. 

“When I went down below to my quarters where all the animals 
belonging to the passengers were kept, they gathered around me to 
hear what had taken place. 

“ ‘Tell you what, Bill,’ said an English bulldog, ‘you did make a 
bully good looking king. Really in your royal robes you did not 
look unlike King George—and I have seen King George and know 
what I am talking about.’ 

“‘But what made you jump into the swimming tank?’ asked a 
French poodle. 

“ ‘For the moment I forgot it was there,’ I explained, ‘and I ached 
so from sitting up so long that I thought my back would break. 
Then, too, the crown was cutting into my head, and I was half 
smothered with that fur cape and all the rest of the things I wore.’ 

“ ‘It is a good thing we saw them dress you up in the afternoon to 

68 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

find how the things were going to fit you,’ said another dog, ‘or we 
would never have gotten a peep at you, for they shut us in at sun¬ 
down and you did not appear until midnight.’ 

“That is the whole story,” concluded Billy, bowing left and right, 
and stepping down from the rocky ledge he had used as a platform. 
Now it was Stubby’s turn to tell of his experiences. 


69 




CHAPTER VIII 


STUBBY RELATES HIS EXPERIENCE WITH SEALS 

TUBBY looked only as big as a minute as he mounted 
the rock to recount his experience. 

“The most thrilling and exciting adventure I had 
while we were in California was at the Catalina Is¬ 
lands, where we went to ride in the glass-bottomed rowboats they 
have there so people may see the bottom of the ocean and get a peek 
at the sea feathers, coral, flowers and fish. What one sees through 
the clear water is most beautiful. Little hills and hollows of the 
purest yellow or white sand, with long, dull pink swaying plants 
resembling ostrich plumes growing out of it. Next to them there 
may be bright yellow fan-shaped plants around the roots of which is 
white and pink coral exactly the shape of a man’s brains, or else in 
the form of sprays. And from these same mounds of glistening 
golden sand will bloom the delicate waxy sea anemones. Oh, it is 
most enchanting, and one expects to see a mermaid glide through 
this sea garden along with the gold, blue and silver fish that swim 
among these plants as our birds fly through our trees. 



7 1 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

“Then if one wishes to row out about a mile where the water is 
so deep the bottom cannot be seen, they find the shoals of bluefish. 
That is a wonderful treat, for here they will see hundreds of young 
bluefish from six to twelve inches long, all facing in the same di¬ 
rection, apparently resting on the long-stemmed plants that grow 
up from the bottom of the ocean and have little yellow balloons 
on the stems to keep them from falling back. This is one of the feed¬ 
ing places of the bluefish where they stay when the tide is running out 
and eat the particles of sea food it washes out to them. All the fish 
face one way, there being tiers of fish, one on top of the other, with 
only a few inches between each tier as far down in the ocean as one 
can see. 

“The queerest part of it is that they keep their fins moving in and 
out but do not move or swim about at all. They are as blue as the 
bluest sky you ever saw and they make a wonderfully beautiful 
picture. 

“As one approaches these bluefish banks, as they are called, the 
reflection of their color makes the water above them turn a dark 
shade so the fishermen can tell by the color of the water where they 
are feeding. 

“You will say there is nothing thrilling about this peaceful scene,” 
said Stubby. “But wait! I am coming to that. I just had to tell 
you about this most exquisite sight. 

72 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

“Well, when we came back from our ride in the little rowboat, a 
man on the dock was calling out, ‘Right this way for the glass- 
bottomed steamer that takes you to the Seal Rocks! You see the 
seals at home and the way they live. All the way there you can gaze 
through the glass bottom and see the wonderful Sea Garden. At a 
point where it is most beautiful a man in a diver’s suit will enter 
the water and bring to you any flower or shell you may wish. Start¬ 
ing in ten minutes, returning in one hour for the small price of one 
dollar. Don’t miss seeing this wonder garden of the deep!’ 

“It all sounded good to me, so I went on board and prepared to 
gaze at the same beauties I had seen in the rowboat, but when we 
started I was very much disappointed to see instead of the exquisitely 
colored fish, flowers and swaying plants just a few unattractive 
shells, and no flowers or feathers at all. And when the diver went 
overboard there was nothing attractive for him to get to bring back. 
I heard one of the passengers say that he had taken this trip years 
ago and that then there were sea feathers and plants and coral but 
that all the years people had been carrying them away until now 
scarcely anything was left. What we did see were put there from 
time to time, so the diver could have something to bring the people, 
charging twenty-five cents for each piece he brought. So I stopped 
gazing through the glass bottom and went to the side of the boat 
where I could watch the antics of a mother seal and two or three 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

others. The boat seemed to make them very angry, and the mother 
seal appeared to be trying to stop it or frighten it away, for she kept 
up a constant crying and approached nearer and nearer the boat as if 
she wished to bite it. 

“I heard the captain tell a lady the seal made such a fuss because 
she was trying to frighten the boat so it would not go to her home 



on Seal Rock; that possibly she had a baby there that she had left 
behind while she went out to look for food. 

11 ‘When we round that point you see ahead, you will hear the 
most awful racket set up for all the seals will begin to bark. The 
males will dive and leap out of the water and come toward us, swim¬ 
ming round and round the ship and under us all the time we are at 
the Rocks, for this is where they live and breed. Do you see that 

74 







Billy Whiskers at Home 

big, dark object on the top of that large rock projecting out into the 
sea? Well, watch it closely and you will see it is a seal. He is 
their leader and he always stays out there where he can catch the 
first glimpse of any intruder and give the alarm. He is by far the 
oldest and largest seal in these waters. There are now many young 
seals on the island, which makes him more fierce than usual for the 
male seals look after their families well and try to protect them 
from all danger. 

“ ‘There, he has spied us and given alarm! When we turn that 
point of land he is on we will be facing a curved rocky beach and 
on those rocks you will see hundreds and hundreds of seals of all 
ages and colors, for the baby seals are cream colored, while the older 
seals have dark brown coats.’ 

“True to all the captain said, the moment we rounded the point, 
one would have thought bedlam had been turned loose, for every 
seal was barking—the old seals loudly and fiercely, the baby seals 
with mere squeaks. 

“I left the captain and went to the side of the ship to watch the 
seals slip off the high rocks into the water and come toward us with 
that peculiar gliding motion seals alone have. In a few minutes 
there were hundreds of them around our boat. I was standing by a 
little eight-year-old boy, my fore paws on the rail of the boat, when, 
horror of horrors! I felt him give me a push and into that seething 

75 


Billy Whiskers at Home 


mass of angry seals I went head first. I thought my time had come, 
and that I would be eaten alive, the seals looked so fierce. They 
swam under me, tossing me three or four feet up in the air. They 
swam over me, sending me almost to 
the very bottom of the ocean. Then 
again they would swim around me, 
twirling me around so fast it made my 
head swim. Every minute I expected 
to have them bite me. When I 
came to the surface after one of 
those times when they had 
pushed me down to the bot¬ 
tom, I heard the boat’s whis¬ 
tle tooting like mad and I realized 
that the captain was doing it to 



frighten the seals away. It served the purpose, too, for it did that 
very thing, every one of the seals quickly making for the shore. As 
soon as they had left me, I swam toward the boat and the captain 
lowered a bushel basket tied to a rope for me to crawl in, which I 
did and then a sailor pulled me quickly to the deck. Since that day 

76 




















Billy Whiskers at Home 

I have never wanted to see a seal and when I chance to walk through 
a park and hear them barking, it makes the cold shivers run up and 
down my spine to think what I endured while those seals were sur¬ 
rounding me.” 

Stubby’s experience pleased the crowd greatly, and they showed 
their appreciation by stamping their feet on the ground and bellow¬ 
ing, grunting, barking, meowing, baaing and bleating. 

Amidst this applause Stubby left the platform. 


77 





CHAPTER IX 


BUTTON IS SPEAKER 

FTER Stubby had spoken, it was Button’s turn to tell 
what had befallen him. 

“If you animals will excuse me, I shall be greatly 
obliged, as I am no speaker and nothing of interest has 
happened to me for a long time,” he said. 

“Oh, yes, there has! I know there has!” said Billy. “Go ahead 
and tell them what happened to you at the Barbados!” 

“Yes, do,” Stubby agreed. “That was an extremely exciting 
experience.” 

So Button mounted the rocky ledge and began: 

“Our ship had anchored about two miles out in the roadstead, 
and every one was on deck waiting for the little rowboats to come to 
take them ashore. The water is not deep enough at the wharf for 
sea-going vessels to dock. As they waited, the passengers were 
hanging over the rail watching the little negro boys dive for coins 
down into the deep, deep waters where sharks and swordfish lurk 

79 



Billy Whiskers at Home 



awaiting a chance to bite off an arm or leg or run a long sword into 
the body of an unwary swimmer. 

“A man and his wife in a rowboat came up close to the ship to 
display their wares. They had a lovely parrot in one 
cage and another full of red, yellow and vari-colored 
birds for sale, and also jewelry cleverly fashioned out 
of shells, and handbags made of the brown, glossy reeds 
of a plant that grows on the island. I 
was watching the 
pair when quick 
as a wink a man 
pushed me off the 
ship’s rail where 
I was curled up 
to view all that 
went on beneath 
me. 

“My surprise 

was so great when I found myself falling from the height of the 
promenade deck that I could not think, and when I landed in the 
woman’s lap in the rowboat, I would have leaped overboard had 
she not held on to me. 

“The man who had pushed me overboard called out, ‘The cat for 

80 






BILLY SURPRISED AUGUSTA BY BUTTING HER RIGHT OVER HIS HEAD, 
AND SHE LANDED IN THE TROUGH WITH A GREAT SPLASH. 

(Page 113) 


















































Billy Whiskers at Home 

a parrot I That cat is a valuable one but I will part with him for 
your talking parrot.’ 

“To his surprise, the woman quickly agreed to the trade and tied 
the parrot’s cage to a rope that was let down. The cage had just 
reached the deck level and the man was untying it when I spied it 
as it was loosened and swung in the woman’s lap. With a bound I 
grabbed it and began to climb up. The woman’s husband stretched 
out his hand to stop me but he was too late. I had climbed too high 
for him to reach me and in trying to do so he came near upsetting his 
boat with all his wares and his wife in it. Indeed, had it not been 
for the woman’s presence of mind to throw her whole weight to the 
opposite side of the boat, it would surely have capsized. 

“When I reached the top of the rope, the man who had thrown me 
overboard tried to prevent me from coming on deck by pushing my 
head back. But at last I wearied of having him treat me so, and the 
next time he touched me I reached out one paw and gave him a 
scratch that quickly made him let go the rope. While he was 
nursing his hand and too engrossed with the pain to think of what I 
was doing, I jumped aboard and ran into the saloon. As I went, I 
heard the boatman and his wife calling loudly to the man on board 
to send back their parrot or pay them for it. After tormenting them 
for some time by pretending he was going to keep the parrot, he 
wrapped some money in a paper and threw it into their boat. 


Billy Whiskers at Home 


“I considered it a narrow escape for I would not have lived with 
that couple for worlds. There is no country, no matter how beau¬ 
tiful, where I have ever been or about which I have ever heard 
in which I should like to live but the United States of America. 



“Well, as time went on, the man who bought the parrot neglected 
her so, forgetting to feed her and give her water to drink and for 
her bath that I felt sorry for her and I told her that when we stopped 
at the Island of Trinidad I would open her cage door and let her 
out if she thought she could fly ashore and take care of herself after 
she had gained land. 


82 





















Billy Whiskers at Home 

“ ‘Of course I can, for my wings have never been clipped and on 
that island grows every kind of food I need, just as in the Barbados.’ 

“ ‘Very well, then, I will open your cage door and free you,’ I 
promised. 

“Consequently when we reached Trinidad, I wiggled and fussed 
with her cage door until I succeeded in opening it. Then I had the 
pleasure of seeing her fly for the shore, where she alighted on the 
top of a tall cocoanut palm tree. How I did enjoy her owner’s dis¬ 
comfiture when he discovered she was gone! He made a great fuss 
and said his bird had been stolen and insisted the entire ship be 
searched for her, though one of the sailors said he had seen a green 
parrot fly to shore shortly after we had landed. He declared parrots 
are clever birds and said she probably loosed the door with her bill 
and squeezed herself out, as he had seen them do that trick before.” 

The crowd cheered and cheered in the usual way and said they 
wished Button would tell them another experience. But he hurried 
off the rock platform and lost himself in the crowd so they could 
not press him to tell another. 


83 





















CHAPTER X 


BILLY RUNS AWAY 

LL the next day the animals and fowls too listened with 
all their ears to discover whether or not Mr. Watson 
or any of the farm hands knew they had been away at 
a party the night before. But not a word was spoken 
about it so they decided no one thought they had been off the farm. 

“My, didn’t we have a good time? One to be remembered all 
our lives! And Father Billy’s talk was most entertaining,” said 
Daisy. 

“We certainly did, and the Chums related such thrilling things 
that it would almost pay to let them go traveling again so they 
could have some more unusual experiences to relate when they came 
home,” agreed her husband. 

“Oh, hi there, Billy Whiskers, where are you?” called Mr. Wat¬ 
son. “I want you to pull Ruthie to town in the little goat cart. 
She is going in to spend the day with some little friends, and they 
wish to have a ride in her cart.” 



85 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

So the new harness with all the shining silver buckles on it was 
put on Billy and he was hitched to the cunning little cart and away 
drove Ruthie, Mr. Watson’s little four-year-old granddaughter who 
had come to the farm for a visit with her mother, the only daughter 
of Mr. and Mrs. Watson. 



Billy trotted along the road almost as fast as a pony would go, 
for the cart and Ruthie were a light burden for such a big, strong 
goat, and it was no time until they were in town. Of course Mr. 
Watson drove a little way behind them so he could be ready to 
take a hand should any accident occur in case they met a drove 
of cattle, for he did not know what Billy might do in such an 
emergency. 


86 




Billy Whiskers at Home 

The first thing they did on coming to the town was to go straight 
to the home of Grace, the little girl Ruthie was to visit. There 
they piled into the cart all the children the little wagon could hold, 
and took them for a nice long ride around town, returning just be¬ 
fore luncheon. Before they went into the house they unhitched 
Billy and gave him just what he liked best to eat: carrots and a 
bunch of sweet hay with a big pail of cold well water to drink. 
Then they left him to wander around in the big yard as he pleased, 
taking care that all the gates were tightly shut before they left him. 

Billy ate his dinner which he enjoyed greatly, being extremely 
hungry after pulling the children all about the town. After he 
had eaten, he sought the shade of a big tree and took a nap. He 
awoke feeling very much refreshed and hearing the children 
laughing at their play on the other side of the house, he thought 
this would be a good time to run off and hide before they tired of 
the swing and came for him to take them for another ride. This 
he had determined he would not do, having ahead of him the long 
pull to take Ruthie back to the farm. 

As you know, gates were nothing to Billy when he wished to go 
somewhere, as he could jump any gate he ever saw. With a bound 
now he was over one and out on the street, running as fast as ever 
he could go toward Lake Winnebago which he could see rippling 
in the distance. 


87 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

On his arrival at the shore of the lake, feeling hot and dusty 
from pulling the little cart around during the morning, he decided 
to go for a swim. This he enjoyed, coming out greatly refreshed 
and rested. While he was shaking himself dry, up the beach he 
spied a queer looking object. He could not make out what it was, 
so he determined to run up and find out. He had almost reached 
the spot when something glided on top of the water for a short dis¬ 
tance and then rose from the surface and flew for quite a distance 
as straight up in the air as ever it could go. Then it descended 
in graceful curves to the water, and again made a flight. 

“Heigho! They are hydroplanes!” exclaimed Billy. “My, how 
I wish I could get a ride in one! I know I should just love the 
sensation of gliding on the water and then flying straight up in the 
air. I think I shall go as close as I can to them and see what they 
look like at close range.” 

When he arrived and saw one after the other of the planes make 
a flight, he was more anxious than ever to ride in one. At last he 
was so near he could have stepped off the platform one plane was 
lying against, and in fact was about to do so and take all chances 
when some boys discovered him and began to throw stones at him. 
He paid no attention to them, but thought how cruel and selfish 
boys could be to throw stones at him when he was not bothering 
any one, only looking at the fascinating planes just as they were. 

88 


Billy Whiskers at Home 




But when they sicked two dogs on him, he 
knew he would have to go. They chased 
him to the end of the pier. He could go 
no farther unless he jumped into the 
water. Then when one of the dogs snap¬ 
ped at him, he turned to his tormentor and hooked him 
straight up in the air, and he came down inside one of the 
hydroplanes just as it was rising from the water, carrying 
him up with it. The dog was so afraid in the plane thai 
he jumped out when they were about fifty feet in the air, a 
went kersplash in the water, disappearing from sight and prob¬ 
ably touching the very bottom of the lake. When he came to the 
surface he swam for shore and, reaching it, cut sticks for home as 
fast as his long legs would carry him. 

On seeing what had happened to his friend, 
the second dog slunk off and disappeared from 
sight, no one knew where. 

Then some rough boys and men thought they 
would have some fun with Billy and walked 
out to the end of the pier to tease him, but 
after the first man had been butted into the 
lake, the others thought they would not try 
Seeing there was too large a crowd gathered on the 
89 



Billy Whiskers at Home 

shore for him to make his way through it, Billy Whiskers leaped 
into the water, swimming near the shore until he was so far away 
that the crowd would not bother him any more. He landed and 
tried to find his way back to the house where Ruthie was visiting, 
for he knew by the position of the sun he must have been away a long 
time. But the more he tried to find the house, the more confused 
he grew. Billy Whiskers knew he was lost. 

He ran up and down the streets, baaing as loudly as he could, 
hoping he might happen to pass the house and Ruthie would run 
out and bring him in. But no such luck attended him and his 
baaing only attracted the attention of the mischievous boys, who 
threw stones after him or chased him up and down one street after 
another. He had just escaped one group of boys and was quietly 
walking down a street, trying to recover his breath, when he heard 
the voices of several children in a yard the other side of a high 
stone wall. He thought he recognized Ruthie’s voice, and ran to 
the gate and peeped in, but no, to his disappointment all the chil¬ 
dren were boys. They were acting so queerly he stopped to watch _ 
them for a minute or two, and then he discovered they were trying 
to do the tricks they had seen the clowns and trapeze performers 
do at the circus. He was so busy gazing at them that he pushed 
the gate open and went inside that he might have a close view 
of the hand springs and backward somersaults they were turning. 

90 


CHAPTER XI 

AN EXCITING DAY FOR BILLY 

S Billy stood watching the antics of the boys, a bumble 
bee began buzzing around his head, bothering him by 
darting in and out of his ears. He shook his head and 
tried also to paw it away, but it still persisted in hum¬ 
ming around and darting at him. 

“Say, you old buzzer, if you don’t keep away from me, I’ll swal¬ 
low you alive,” threatened Billy. 

Just then the bee made a dive for his nose, but Billy opened 
his mouth and swallowed it. But not before the bee had 
stung his tongue. The pain was terrific, and Billy jumped 
about as if he had suddenly gone crazy. He stood on his 
head, rolled in the grass, wheeled round and round on his hind 
legs and pawed the air with his fore feet, all the while bleating 
pitifully. 

Seeing the goat carrying on in this way, the boys thought he was 
trying to mimic them, which made them laugh so they could not 
stand up, for of course they did not know he had been stung. Alas 

9i 



Billy Whiskers at Home 


for them! Billy thought they were making sport of his pain, and 
with a single bound he was upon them, glad of a chance to hurt 
something as he was being hurt. He kicked, butted and pawed 
them until he had sent one boy over the fence into the alley, and 
another was doubled up with his hands 
over his stomach. Two boys 
escaped, but the fifth ran to¬ 
ward the kitchen door, Billy in 
hot pursuit. 

The boy had slammed the 
in Billy’s face and was 
running through the 
house when Billy butted 
a big hole straight 
through the screen door. This 
brought the goat up behind a 
big, fat cook who had her 
hands in bread dough. Before she knew what had happened, she 
felt herself falling backward. To save herself, she grabbed at the 
bread pan. Of course it slid off the table and she fell on the floor. 
The bread pan turned upside down over Billy’s horns, and the 
sticky mass of dough went trickling down over one eye and on down 
over his nose. 



92 









































































































Billy Whiskers at Home 

The cook’s screams brought the master of the house from his 
study to the kitchen, but on arriving at the doorway he was met 
by an infuriated goat who lowered his head to butt him. On see¬ 
ing such an adversary, the master made haste to retreat and quickly 
put the dining table between them. But he was not quite nimble 
enough for Billy was close on his heels and the chase was on. 

Round and round that table they ran, with Billy gaining at 
every step, Mr. Robinson calling loudly for help. Bridget had 
collected her wits by this time and came to his rescue with a broom 
and every time Billy passed her on his way around the table after 
Mr. Robinson, she gave him a whack with it. Billy paid not the 
slightest attention to her, as he was much too intent on overtaking 
Mr. Robinson and giving him one mighty butt. In an ill-fated 
moment Mr. Robinson’s foot slipped as he rounded one end of 
the table. He grabbed the table runner to save himself, but that 
did no good. He fell on one knee, and the table runner carried with 
it vase, flowers and all, which came tumbling to the floor just in 
time to fall on Billy’s head. It hurt him not at all, but really did 
him a good turn as it washed the sticky dough from his horns and 
eyes, for which he was truly thankful. 

This little delay gave Mr. Robinson time to pick himself up and 
escape through the hall and up the front stairs, which he took two 
at a time. He rushed to his wife’s room, expecting to find the door 

93 


Billy Whiskers at Home 


unlocked, but alas, it was bolted and he heard his wife calling, 
“Help! Help! Burglars!” out of the window. 

“Mary, Mary!” he shouted. 
Let me in! Unbolt the 
door! It it I, your husband!” 

But she was too frightened to 
recognize his voice, and would 
not leave the window through 
which she was leaning to call for 
help. 

Now the door to her room had 
an extra large transom over it, 
plenty large enough for a person 
to climb through, and Mr. Rob¬ 
inson grabbed a stool in the 
hallway, pushed it under the 
transom and succeeded in 
raising himself up on the 
ledge of the door where he 
hung balancing himself on 
his stomach when he 

heard Billy come clattering up the stairs. 

“Mary, Mary, open the door quickly! Stop that calling! Don’t 

94 



































































Billy Whiskers at Home 

you hear me? It is I, your husband!” he shouted at her 
again. 

But his wife only saw a man climbing through her transom and 
thought it was one of the burglars she had heard downstairs, and 
leaned still further out of the window in an attempt to see some¬ 
one coming along the street. She lost her balance and fell head 
first out of the window, but as luck would have it, she landed in a 
soft flower bed, and the window not being so very far from the 
ground, the fall did not injure her in the least. 

At the moment she fell, Billy reached the head of the stairs. 
Seeing Mr. Robinson dangling there, half in and half out, he 
jumped on the stool and gave him a mighty butt that shoved him 
all the way through, and he landed on the floor of his wife’s room 
all in a heap. In a moment he was on his feet and rushed to the 
window to see if his wife had been killed by her fall, forgetting 
all about Billy in his anxiety about his wife. 

Billy’s prey having thus escaped him, and hearing footsteps on 
the stairs, he knew somebody was answering Mrs. Robinson’s cries 
for help. He ran down the long hall, hoping to find a back stair¬ 
way, for he well knew if he was caught by the police or whoever 
it was coming to the rescue, they would club him. He was in 
luck, for he came to a pair of stairs leading straight down to an 
outside back porch. And in a jiffy he was out in the alley, running 

95 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

for dear life, trying to put as much distance between himself and 
the Robinson house as he could. 

All this time his tongue was half killing him with pain, and it 
was now so swollen he could not close his mouth. He was wild 
for a drink of water. He remembered he had seen a lovely spar¬ 
kling fountain, and he was increasing his speed so he would reach 
it quickly when he heard a noise behind him that sounded like a 
patrol wagon coming lickety-split down the street. However, it 
proved to be just a truck full of men, and Billy thought, “I have 
no fear of them,” when suddenly the truck stopped as it was about 
to pass him, and one of the men exclaimed, “There he is now! The 
very goat we are looking for!” and two fellows leaped out after 
him. 

“Oh, no, you don’t!” said Billy to himself, and he kicked up his 
heels and sped down the street and around the corner of the alley. 
The men ran after him as fast as ever they could and the truck 
followed but when they reached the corner, no goat was in sight. 

“Drat that old rascal! He is hiding somewhere! But where 
I can’t imagine as all I see are high back yard walls and fences, 
with not an open gate any place,” said one of the men. 

Just then three shrill screams rent the air about half way down 
the alley. The men knew immediately that Billy must have run 
into a yard and frightened some woman. 

96 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

They were right in this surmise. Being a good jumper, Billy 
had leaped over a wall and landed in a beautiful garden where a 
hammock was swung between two trees. A lovely young lady lay 
in it, reading a book and eating fruit. On seeing a big, white goat 
leap over the fence and come straight towards her, she tried to 
get out of the hammock. But you know what a hammock is when 
you try to get out of one in a hurry? It simply turned upside 
down and she was in a heap on the grass, with fruit, pillows and 
book all about her, and she began to scream and call for help. 

Billy grabbed a pear and trotted on through the yard. At that 
second a big touring car was backed out of the garage by a chauf¬ 
feur, and being fond of riding in any kind of an automobile, Billy 
ran across the lawn and with one bound was in the tonneau. This 
so surprised the chauffeur that instead of stopping the car, he 
stepped on the accelerator and the car shot out to the street at forty 
miles an hour. The moment they were leaving in this manner, 
three men climbed over the back wall, one ran after the car and the 
goat and the other two went to the aid of the young woman who was 
still pleading for aid at the top of her voice. She had rolled around in 
trying to regain her feet so that instead of freeing herself, she had 
wound herself up in hammock and pillows until she was helpless. 
The men quickly had her on her feet and then they all ran to the 
front yard to discover what had become of the car and Billy. 

97 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

Far down the street they could see a large crowd had gathered 
and they hurried along, sure it must be caused by a wreck of the 
car in which Billy rode. 

“Wait until I tell our truck driver to come around on the street 
and pick us up,” said one of the men as they ran. “We’ll get 
there that way quicker than by foot.” 

What really had happened was this: 

When the chauffeur came to his senses, he tried to slow down but 
he did not do so quickly enough and at a cross street he collided 
with a milk wagon, upsetting it and spilling out all the milk cans. 
The impact threw the chauffeur out of his car and stunned him 
for a minute. The truck carrying the men came up just then, they 
picked him up and put him in the truck, while one of them drove 
the auto back to the garage. No harm was done the car with the 
exception of scraping off a little paint, and, forgetting the loss of 
milk, the milk wagon suffered not at all. And now where was 
the cause of all this commotion, Mr. Billy Whiskers? 

He was quietly drinking water from a crystal fountain in some 
private grounds, and I am glad to say that the swelling of his 
tongue was fast going down. 

“Mercy! I believe I am tired! Guess I’ll just go over under 
those bushes and take a nap,” he thought. 

This he did, but he slept much longer than he had intended, for 

98 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

when he awoke the sun was going down, and he decided to try to 
find Ruthie once more. He had just stepped out into the street, 
when who should he see driving down his way but Mr. Watson 
with Ruthie on his lap. They had hunted and hunted for Billy 
with no success at all and had finally decided to go home without 
the goat, getting the cart some other day. They were as glad to 
see Billy as Billy was to see them. Mr. Watson stepped out of his 
buggy and tied Billy under it, then driving slowly, they went home 
to the farm. 

Thus ended a very exciting day for Billy. 


99 





CHAPTER XII 


THE TWINS ARE STOLEN 

N the forenoon of the next day Billy, Nannie, Daisy and 
Billy Junior were under the big elm tree in the barn¬ 
yard listening to Billy describe all that had happened 
to him the day before while he was in town, when 
Stubby came running down the lane. On reaching them he panted 
out this message: 

“Do you know where the Twins are while you are all chatting 
here?” 

“I thought they were down by the stream playing,” answered 
Daisy, their mother. 

“No, they are being carried off to Milwaukee in a butcher’s 
wagon!” announced Stubby. 

“You don’t mean it!” exclaimed Billy. 

“How do you know?” asked Billy Junior, their father. 

“Just saw them! I was running along the road, coming home 
from visiting the dogs over on the Samuelson farm when I heard 
the most pitiful crying as a wagon passed me. Stopping to listen, 
I recognized Judy’s voice saying, ‘I want to go home to my mama! 

IOI 



Billy Whiskers at Home 

You’re a naughty man to carry us off! If you don’t let us out 
of this wagon, my grandpa will butt you when he catches 
you!’ 

“ ‘Yes, he will!’ cried Punch. ‘And my papa will help my 
grandpa butt and hook you! Stop and let us jump out!’ 

“It was while they were crying the wagon passed me, and I 
barked, ‘Stop crying, Punch and Judy! I will bring your grand¬ 
father!’ 

“‘Oh, Uncle Stubby, do get us away from this naughty man! 
He is a butcher and we are afraid he will kill us. Oh, oh, oh! 
Do hurry and get us out of here before he makes us up into 
chops!’ 

“I trotted along behind the wagon and talked to them, telling 
them to cease crying or they would make themselves sick, and that 
I would go along with them and see what I could do. 

“When we were passing the mill, who should come out but But¬ 
ton. He followed too, and I explained the situation to him and 
told him to stay with the Twins and find out where the butcher 
took them; that as soon as he knew this, he was to hurry back 
here and tell you; that if some one did not go along with them and 
tell us where they had been taken, we never could find them in a 
big city like Milwaukee. While he was doing that, I would return 
to the farm for you and then we would all go and rescue the Twins 


102 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

from the butcher. Picking them up on the road the way he did 
was nothing less than stealing.” 

“Come, let’s not stop to talk another minute,” said the Twins’ 
father, as he kissed his wife good-by and told her not to cry, 
assuring he would bring their darlings back with him when he 
came. 

“I know, Billy Junior, but it is a butcher who has them, and he 
will probably try to kill them to-night so that in case any one searches 
for them it will be impossible to find them, while if they were 
alive it would be comparatively easy to locate them.” 

“Oh, mother, isn’t it awful to think of those darling babies being 
butchered? And they are all alone! I shall go crazy if they are 
not brought back,” wailed Daisy to Nannie after Stubby, Billy and 
Billy Junior had departed. 

“I know, my dear, just how you feel,” answered Nannie, “but 
let us trust in God and wait. I feel sure Billy and their father 
will reach the Twins in time to rescue them. Probably while the 
butcher is eating his supper they will butt down the stable door 
and save them. Let us hope so, at any rate.” 

While Daisy and Nannie were trying to cheer one another, the 
two goats and Stubby were running like mad down the road to¬ 
wards Milwaukee. The sun was setting when they saw a big cloud 
of dust in the distance, and at last who should they discover to 

103 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

be making it but Button! He had followed the butcher home 
and as soon as he had seen the Twins taken from the wagon and 
put in an open pen in the stable yard, he started back to tell the 
others where the Twins were. Button reported all this the mo¬ 
ment they met on the road and he turned to hasten back to Mil¬ 



waukee with them. When they arrived at the butcher’s home, 
they were glad to see that his house was on the outskirts of the city 
and quite detached from those of his neighbors. It was now 
dark, but through the lighted window they could see the butcher 
eating his supper. 

“Now is our time,” said Billy. “I’ll just butt down a rail in 
this fence and make a place large enough for us to crawl through. 
Then I will do the same thing with the pen where the Twins are 
imprisoned. We will have them out of here and on the way home 
in a jiffy. Billy Junior, you stand at the foot of the kitchen steps 
and if the butcher starts to come outdoors, butt him hard enough 

104 



Billy Whiskers at Home 

to make him senseless so as to give us ample time to get away.” 

Just then a dog came bounding out of the barn, but he soon 
wished he had stayed where he was for in a moment Stubby and 
Button both were on him. His howl brought the butcher to the 
kitchen door. Seeing two dogs (he supposed Button was a dog) 
he grabbed a mop that stood beside the door and ran to the dog’s 
rescue—but what was that which first struck him in the middle of 
the back and then chased him into the barn, where he received a 
butt that sent him up into the haymow? 

The moment Billy Junior saw the butcher land in the hay, he 
gave the dog Stubby and Button were fighting a butt that sent him 
sky high, landing him on the roof of an outshed where he stood for a 
while too dazed to know what happened to him. Then Billy Junior 
hurried to help his father, but Billy Whiskers and the Twins had 
disappeared, so he knew they were already on the road toward 
home. Maybe you think those kids did not run fast when once 
they found themselves free! 

As for the man who had stolen them, he was so bruised, he never 
even looked in the direction of the pen where he had put the kids. 
All he thought of was to get some liniment for his back. His poor 
dog stayed on the roof of the shed all night, much too frightened 
to attempt to get down. 

When the Whiskers family was all together once again, Judy 

105 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

said, “And what do you think, mama, the old 

naughty butcher said as he J leaned over the pen and 

looked at us before he went { ) i n f° r his supper? ‘You 

are two pretty fine looking kids, and if I was not so 

tired and it was not so dark, I would butcher you to¬ 

night and sell your nice fat tender little chops in the morning. But 
I guess I will wait until it is light to-morrow and then kill you be¬ 
fore anyone comes around looking for you. So ta-ta until then, 
my tender young kids!’ ” 

“Yes,” said Punch. “That is just what he said. He had the 
meanest face you ever saw. When I grow up I am going to go to 
Milwaukee and look for him, and butt him until he cries for mercy, 
so I am!” 

“I wish you children to promise me now that you will never 
go out in the road alone again. Some member of your family must 



Billy Whiskers at Home 

always be with you, for you see now how easily you can be kid¬ 
naped. If Uncle Stubby had not just happened to be on the road, 
you would never have been rescued,” said their mother. 

“We promise! We promise! And cross our hearts we never 
will go in the road alone!” 


107 





CHAPTER XIII 

TROUBLE OVER GINGER COOKIES 

FEW days after all this excitement Billy went over to 
Mr. Goodrich’s farm, which was near that of Mr. 
Watson, to have a chat with the goats there. On his 
way to the pasture where the goats were grazing, he 
had to pass the kitchen door which happened to be open and through 
which came the delicious odor of hot ginger cookies. 

“Yum, yum! How I do love ginger cookies,” thought Billy. 
“I’ll just take a peek, and see if I cannot get one.” 

Cautiously creeping up the kitchen steps, he peeped in. Seeing 
no one but spying a whole bread board covered with the cookies 
which had just been taken from the pans to cool, he skipped across 
the floor and rolled three or four into his mouth, when he heard 
some one coming up out of the cellar and he made his escape in a 
hurry. He had reached the bottom of the steps when he saw two 
little boys coming from the barnyard carrying a basket of eggs be¬ 
tween them. He crept under the steps so they would not see him. 

109 



Billy Whiskers at Home 


Within a few feet of the house, one stopped short, grabbed the other 
by the arm, exclaiming as he did so: 

“Joe, I smell ginger cookies! Come, let’s hurry and get Augusta 
to give us some. Oh, Augusta,” raising his voice, “do give us some 
cookies! They smell too good for anything!” 

“Yes, do, Gustie! I just love your cookies. They are so much 
better than our cook makes.” 

Good-natured Augusta was about to give them half a dozen or 
so when she noticed that some had already been taken. 

“No, I won’t give you any more. You have already helped your¬ 
selves to half a pan of them. Do you think I have nothing to 



do but make cookies for you two 
to eat like little pigs?” 


Vffr “What are y°u talking about, 

^ ft _^.^^GuSta? ^ USt 

1|| \\ * ^ this minute came 

I Ml i S in the door. We 

ILKUJ ! never touched 
1 your cookies!” 


“Honestly we 
didn’t,” said Joe, 



“You needn’t 


i io 












Billy Whiskers at Home 

add lying to your stealing! Guess I know! Those cookies go just 
twelve in a pan, and four of them are gone. Do you mean to tell 
me they put on their hats and went out for a walk? Shame on you, 
boys, for lying to me!” 

“But I tell you, Gusta, we never touched them or as much as knew 
they were here until we came in the door. You came in the same 
moment we did. And here we are standing over on this side of the 
room and the cookies are away over there on that side. Now tell 
me how we could have gotten them.” 

“Well, you may have been over here and grabbed them and run 
back to the door when you heard me coming,” she said slowly. 

“But we didn’t, and you are a mean old thing to accuse us of lying 
and stealing—two things we do not do!” 

“Oh, merciful goodness!” exclaimed Augusta, throwing up her 
hands and looking with horror at her clean kitchen floor. “See, 
see! Some one has been in here and tracked mud all over my 
floor!” 

“Ha, ha! See there, now! Whoever did that stole your cookies 
too,” said Joe. 

“I bet it was the grocery boy, as no one else comes around here,” 
said Augusta. 

“Gusta, you are too quick to accuse people when you really have 
no reason to do so. These are not the footprints of a person at all 


hi 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

but of some animal, and the tracks look like those of a sheep or a 
goat.” 

“So they do! Well, just wait until I find the animal and I will 
give it a good beating with my broom,” she threatened. “I don’t 
care so much for the cookies as I do about the floor, for now I shall 
have to scrub it again, and there is no fun in getting down on my 
rheumatic knees to clean this floor.” 

While Augusta was grumbling, the boys edged their way over to 
the table and helped themselves to three cookies apiece. 

“Oh, Gusta, quick! I smell something burning,” cried Ned. 
“It must be more cookies.” 

Horrors! When she reached the oven door and opened it, a 
cloud of black smoke rushed out and when she carried her pan of 
cookies over to the table she saw at a glance they were burned to a 
crisp. 

“Here, Ned, take them out and throw them in the swill pail,” 
she said. 

This the boy did, and presently Augusta, Ned and Joe had the 
pleasure of seeing a big white goat dancing around like mad. Billy 
had gone to the pail to eat the discarded cookies, and not knowing 
they were so hot, had taken two, one of which stuck to the roof of 
his mouth, burning him dreadfully and causing him to dance with 
the pain. 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

“There is your cookie thief, Gusta! You better go after him with 
your broom,” said Ned. 

Augusta grabbed the broom and rushed toward Billy, but Billy 
was in no mood to be reproved in this manner, so when she was near 
him he surprised her by butting her right over his head, and she 
landed in the horse’s drinking trough with a great splash. The boys, 
enjoying all this, began to throw the eggs from their basket at Billy. 
Of course when they hit him they broke and the yellow yolks ran 
all over his nice white coat. This angered him and he ran toward 
the house to butt the boys, but they leaped inside the door and shut 
it, throwing more eggs at him from the safety of the window. 

Just now Mrs. Goodrich entered the kitchen and seeing the boys 
throwing eggs from the basket, exclaimed, “Boys, boys! What are 
you doing? What do you mean by throwing nice fresh eggs at 
something?” 

“Oh, we forgot they were eggs! We were throwing them at a 
big, cross white goat outside. He has just butted Gusta into the 
watering trough, and we were trying to chase him away. Here he 
comes up the steps now!” 

Bing, bing, bangety-bing! Two hard butts in quick succession on 
the kitchen door. As it was not tightly closed, it flew open and in 
came Billy, looking for his tormentors. One dove under the table, 
the other stepped up on the table right on top of the cookies, while 

”3 


Billy Whiskers at Home 


Mrs. Goodrich plunged into the dining room and barricaded the 
door by pushing the dining table against it and 
piling the chairs on top of it. 

Billy tried to get at the boy under the table 
but could not do so as the table stood against 
the wall. But he could reach the boy on 
top of the table by climbing on a chair be¬ 
side it. This he did but as he came up 
one side, the boy jumped down the 
other, upset the table and the be¬ 
loved cookies rolled in all di¬ 



rections. Seeing this, Billy 
let the boys escape and 
turned his attention to eat¬ 
ing every cookie he could 
find. He had just concluded 
he had found them all, even to 
the one he pawed out from un¬ 
der the stove when who should 

& _ appear in the doorway 

but the hired man, 
pitchfork in hand. He was evidently in pursuit of Billy Whiskers. 
Now there was one thing Billy feared and that was a pitchfork. 




Billy Whiskers at Home 

He had good reason to do so, for he had been chased with them and 
had had them stuck in his sides many, many times. Consequently 
on seeing this man standing in the doorway armed with one, he 
looked around for a way to get out of the room. There was the 
door into the dining room so well barricaded by Mrs. Goodrich and 
the outside door guarded by the man with the pitchfork. Oh, there 
was a flight of stairs and without a moment’s hesitation he ran up 
them, the man close behind, trying his best to reach him with the 
long-handled fork. Arriving at the top, he saw another flight lead¬ 
ing down into the front hall. Down these he plunged, but half way 
down he encountered Mrs. Goodrich. She was so frightened at 
seeing the big goat coming toward her that she lost her balance and 
went rolling to the bottom. Billy ran into the living room and 
thank goodness, a window was open. He jumped through and made 
his escape down the road. By the time the hired man had picked up 
Mrs. Goodrich and had satisfied himself no bones were broken, Billy 
was out of sight and there was no telling in which direction he had 
gone. So he went around to the kitchen to see how Augusta was 
getting along. He found her all right physically but mentally she 
was mad as a wet cat. For had not Olie, her best beau, seen her in a 
very undignified position, sitting in the watering trough with legs 
hanging over and struggling to get out? And worse yet, he had 
laughed when he tried to help her out. He could not control him- 

”5 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

self for she looked too funny stuck fast in the trough. And so now 
all she would say was: 

“Olie Oleson, I will never, no, never speak another word to you as 
long as I live! So there!” 

Olie had heard this threat many times before so that it did not 
bother him in the least, for he knew the very next time she saw him 
she would have forgotten all about her threat. 

“I believe I won’t go back and see the goats this morning but wait 
until these people cool off,” thought Billy. “If that hired man 
should happen to see me down in the pasture, he might take a shot 
at me. My, but those ginger cookies were good! Wish I could 
have taken some to Nannie and the rest of the family at home. The 
Twins especially would have been delighted with them. I don’t 
see why goats and animals don’t have pockets in the sides of their 
skins. It would be such a convenience for them to be able to 
take presents home to their families and to carry a lunch sometimes 
when they have no idea when they will be able to find food the next 
time.” 

And so musing, Billy went home. 


116 


CHAPTER XIV 


THE CHUMS HAVE A DAY OFF 

O, Stubby and Button, come over here a minute!” 

“All right,” answered Button. “I’ll be there as soon 
as I finish eating this fish head.” 

“How in the world can you enjoy those nasty, smelly 

things?” 

“Why, they are delicious! Don’t you know the old saying, ‘The 
nearer the bone, the sweeter the meat’? Well, as these fish heads 
are all bone, that makes what little meat there is on them mighty 
sweet and toothsome.” 

“Oh, you are a regular epicure, you are!” exclaimed Billy. 

“What do you want of us?” asked Stubby, coming up to Billy 
Whiskers. 

“It is this: what do you say to our going into town and spending 
a day? It is so quiet out here where nothing ever happens that I 
feel I shall explode unless I hear a little noise and see something 
going on with a little life in it.” 

117 



Billy Whiskers at Home 

“Just the thing! Life out here is beginning to grow a little monot¬ 
onous for me also after our exciting life of moving from one place to 
another almost every day.” 

“Oh, Button, leave your smelly old fish head and come here! 
Billy has a dandy plan for us all,” called Stubby. 

“Coming!” called the black cat. “I have just finished.” 

“No need for you to come here. We will pass you on the way we 
are going to take,” said Billy. 

“So you are going some place, are you? I was just thinking this 
morning that it was about time you were suggesting a trip some¬ 
where, as you have remained here quite a while for you. And every 
so often the wanderlust strikes you and off you go. The only thing 
that would keep you here longer would be that you have been every¬ 
where but to the North Pole and the South Pole. Each day I have 
been expecting you to propose a trip to the moon in an airship of 
some kind.” 

“No, I am not weary of the farm yet, but I feel I should like a 
little excitement just for a day to give a little spice to life.” 

“Well, what is the plan you have in mind?” 

“Nothing much, only for us three to go into town and spend the 
day and return at nightfall.” 

“As wild as that, is it? Very well, I am with you for that trip. 

118 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

But no more long trips, gallivanting all over the face of the globe 
for me for a year at least. I am tired seeing strange countries and 
foreign peoples for a while. I want to stay home and enjoy its quiet 
and comfort.” 

“Ho, you must be feeling old, Button, to speak like that. You, 
the friskiest cat in the world, talking of settling down!” 

Half an hour later the three Chums were trotting down the alley 
back of the main street in town. They were about to pass a movie 
theater when, hearing the music and seeing the rear doors open for 
ventilation, they thought they would go in and have a peep at the 
film being run off. 

Button being black as ink ran down the middle aisle without being 
seen, but just then three or four people stepped into the aisle to go 
out and Button dodged under a lady’s seat. She did not see the cat 
but felt something soft rub across her legs. Immediately she 
thought it was a big rat and gave one blood-curdling scream that 
upset the entire audience for they did not know what had happened, 
and all rushed frantically from the theater. All because one unseen 
cat had rubbed against a woman! 

The proprietor rushed out on the stage in front of the curtain to 
discover the cause of the panic but all he saw were empty seats and 
the crowd pushing and hurrying pell-mell out the doors. As he 

”9 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

stood there trying to fathom the trouble, he saw in the darkness 
among the empty seats two bright yellow lights flash from aisle to 
aisle under the seats and then over them. 

“Great Scott! What can that be? Whatever it is, it must be 
what frightened the people away. Ikey, come here quick, and tell 
me what it is I see!” 

“Are you crazy? Can’t you tell what you see with your own 
eyes?” the boy asked. 

“Look over in that dark corner, and tell me if you see two yellow 
balls of fire jumping here and there and everywhere.” 

“Yes, I do. And I see nothing but just those two spots. What is 
more, I am going to get out, for now they are coming straight this 
way!” 

Both man and boy hurried behind the screen and were beginning 
to tell the people working about the theater what they had seen when 
cool as you please out walked Button from behind the screen and 
stood gazing at them. 

“Holy Moses, those lights we saw were only the yellow eyes of 
this cat! But look, Ikey, he is black all over. A black cat has 
walked across our stage. That means bad luck for us.” 

“No, it doesn’t, you superstitious old man! Black cats or white 
cats can’t bring or take good luck or bad. In this age we don’t 
believe in such things.” 


120 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

“Anyhow get him out of here! Get him out of here! For he has 
driven all our audience away.” 

“Well, what do you care, Solomon? They have paid their money. 
What does it matter whether or not they see the picture? Their 
money is all you want. But I’ll drive him out for you anyway,” and 
a book was hurled at Button’s head by a man standing by an open 
window a few feet away from the 
cat. 

Button dodged the book, 
then with a long leap 
went flying over 
the man’s head 
and through the 
open window out 
into the alley, where 
by chance he happened to alight on the back of a passing dog. 
Feeling Button’s claws dig into him, he set up a howl and ran down 
the alley lickety-split. He passed Billy and Stubby, who stood 
aside and laughed so heartily at the sight of Button clinging to the 
dog’s back that they nearly fell over in their merriment. But even 
as they looked, the dog ducked down and crawled under a fence, 
scraping Button off. Billy and Stubby ran down the alley where 
Button stood, too dazed and bruised to move for he had received a 



121 








Billy Whiskers at Home 

hard bump on his head when the dog crawled under the fence. 

“For pity’s sake, how did you happen to be playing circus with 
that dog?” asked Billy. 

“If you could only have seen yourself, you would have died with 
laughter. You looked so comical all hunched up riding on that 
dog’s back.” 

“And so would you have been hunched up if you had been trying 
to stick on, not by the skin of your teeth but by your claws which 
kept slipping. I knew if I let go I should have a terrible tumble.” 

“Here come the people out of the back of that theater, looking for 
you. We better be going,” said Billy. And so the three trotted 
down the alley until they came to a cross street. They had gone 
but a little way down this street when they came to a grocery store. 

“I think I shall leave you fellows here and go on and see if I can¬ 
not find something to eat to my liking,” said Stubby. “Where shall 
we meet when it is time to go home, and at what time shall we meet?” 

“At the crossroads at the edge of town, around six o’clock,” re¬ 
plied Billy. “What are you two going to do?” 

“Oh, I don’t know. Just walk along and see what turns up,” 
said Stubby. 

“And you, Button?” 

“Tag along with you, Billy, until I think of something I should 
like to do.” 


122 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

“So long then, until we meet again!” 

Stubby ran through the side door of the grocery and found him¬ 
self in a kind of store room and shipping room combined, as there 
were shelves full of canned goods, boxes of crackers and breakfast 
foods, while on the floor were baskets of groceries ready to be de¬ 
livered. All around the room next to the wall were ranged barrels 
of molasses, kerosene, vinegar and such things. 

Just as Stubby entered, a boy came in to get a box of crackers 
from a high shelf and as he reached for it his foot slipped and in 
trying to save himself from falling, the box dropped out of his hands 
and went crashing to the floor, knocking off the lid and all the 
crackers spilling over the floor. 

“Oh, see what I have done,” he grumbled. “Spilled all those 
crackers, and spoiled them too, for after being on the dirty floor they 
will have to be thrown away.” 

At this moment he was called to the front of the store and the mo¬ 
ment he left, Stubby came from behind the barrel where he had 
been hiding and ate the crackers. He ate every one and even licked 
up the crumbs, they were such good, fresh, crisp crackers. When 
the boy came back and saw they had disappeared he took it for 
granted that some one had swept them up. This time he had come 
for some molasses and while it was running into the quart measure, 
he took a handful of crackers and stuck them one by one under the 

123 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

molasses spigot, letting the molasses trickle all over them, and then 
putting the whole cracker in his mouth at once. 

“Gee, but they do taste good! Almost as good as molasses candy!” 
he was saying when some one called him and he seized the quart 
measure and hurried away, forgetting to turn off the spigot. 

Stubby had been watching all this and now ran over to the mo¬ 
lasses barrel and let some of the sweet stuff drop into his mouth. 

“My, oh my, that is almost as good as candy, just as the boy said! 
If I only had a cracker or two, I would be fixed. Why, there is the 
box now! I’ll just go over and get a mouthful of crackers and bring 
them back and hold them under the spigot until they are covered 
with molasses, the way the boy did, and eat them whole.” 

All this time the molasses was running out on the floor, making a 
big puddle. 

“Yum, yum! These crackers and molasses taste good! I just 
love molasses candy, and this is next thing to it. I must have another 
mouthful before some one comes and cleans up this mess,” but he 
had not the time for just then the owner of the grocery entered the 
side door and seeing a stray dog in his store raised his leg to kick him 
out. But alas, as he lifted his foot, the other slipped in the molasses 
and he sat down squarely in it all. 

“Who left that spigot turned on?” he roared. 

Stubby waited to hear no more for he knew the poor boy would 

124 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

be punished. Not wishing to pass the man, and there being no other 
way out, Stubby decided to jump up on a high box and from it take 
a flying leap over the man’s head out into the alley. This he did 
and landed safely. In a minute more there was no sight of a little 
stubby-tailed dog in that alley. 

While Stubby was in the grocery store, Billy had wandered on a 
block or two when he heard a great hullabaloo in a back yard. 

“I wonder what is going on there. I’ll just run along and peek 
in,” he thought. 

Arrived at the yard where he heard all the whistling and laughter, 
he peeked through the half open gate and this is what he saw: four 
boys trying to hitch a big dog to a little express wagon. And they 
were having a most difficult time doing it for the dog would not 
stand up but insisted on crouching on the ground. Two boys tried 
to hold him up while the other two adjusted the harness. But no 
use; he would not stand up. At last the boys grew provoked and the 
boy on either side of him gave the dog a cruel blow with a whip and 
pushed him forward. In his surprise, the dog bounded forward. 
Once he was started the boys had no way of controlling him for the 
reins were dangling over his back. His starting had surprised the 
boys as much as their whipping had surprised the dog. Down the 
long back yard he went, dragging the little express wagon straight 
toward the gate through which Billy was peeping. When he dashed 

125 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

through it, the wheels on one side of the wagon collided with the 
gate post. This broke the traces, releasing the dog. Down the 
street he went like mad to escape his tormentors. 

On reaching the gate the boys spied Billy. One lad, who had 
once owned a pair of goats and a little wagon, called out, “Come 
ahead, fellows! Let’s hitch up the goat! He is a big, fine creature 
and can pull the wagon easier than the dog.” 

Almost before Billy knew what was happening, he found himself 
hitched to the little express wagon and being driven down the street. 
At first he enjoyed it, until too many boys got in the wagon at one 
time. This treatment made Billy angry and he decided to upset 
them the first opportunity he had. When he came to a place where 
the sidewalk was high from the street pavement, he ran off the walk, 
turning the little wagon completely upside down and spilling out all 
the boys. As Billy ran off, one boy caught hold of the reins that 
were dragging on the ground, jumped in the wagon which had 
righted itself by this time, and on down the street they went. When 
they came to a small bridge that spanned a wide ditch, Billy said to 
himself, “Here is where I lose the last boy!” and with extra exertion 
he ran faster than he had ever run in all his life. As he reached the 
bridge, instead of going over it he swerved and plunged down the 
bank right into the little stream which was narrow but deep. Here 
he spilled the boy out and while he was picking himself up, Billy 

126 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

climbed up the opposite bank and headed for the crossroads where 
he had agreed to meet Stubby and Button. 



He reached this rendezvous about ten minutes before the others. 
When they came and saw him standing in the traces half asleep, they 
wanted to know where and how he had acquired the wagon. He 
told them and added that he was going to take it home with him, and 
the boys could find it as best they could. 

When the Chums reached the farm, Mr. Watson was sitting on 
his front porch reading, but he glanced up at the sound of wheels 
turning into his driveway and he had to laugh for there was Billy 
pulling a very new looking little express wagon, with Stubby and 

127 



Billy Whiskers at Home 

Button sitting on the front seat Indeed they had the appearance 
of driving the little turnout. 

“Well, well, well! I wonder how Billy came by that wagon. 
Probably some little boy has hitched him to it and then hit him with 
a whip or done something to him he did not like and he has run 
off with the wagon. I expect in a short time some one will appear 
looking for it. In the meantime I will unhitch Billy and take care 
of the wagon.” 

But it was not until the next morning that any one came for it, as 
it took the boys all that time to discover where Billy had gone. 


128 




“SAVE ME QUICKLY, OR IT WILL BE TOO LATE!” GOBBLED THE TURKEY. 

Page 154) 













CHAPTER XV 


BUTTING MATCHES 



[HEP, the Watson dog, noticed that all the animals 
seemed greatly excited. They wandered around the 
farmyard, lay down for a few minutes and then got up 
up to begin their restless wandering again. 

“Something is up, and I bet it is some devilment of Billy Whiskers. 
I’ll just keep my eye on the villain without his knowing it and dis¬ 
cover what it is that is going on,” thought Shep. 

Now the night pasture where the cows were allowed to wander 
after they had been milked in the evening was directly the other 
side of the barn. The gate between was left standing open so the 
cattle could pass from barnyard to pasture and back again at their 
pleasure. This pasture led down a steep hill to the stream and a 
nice grassy meadow, and as the banks of the stream were sandy, the 
cattle liked to go there to roll in the sand and dry their coats after a 
bath in the pools of the stream. 

It was bright moonlight—one of those nights when the moon rose 

129 



Billy Whiskers at Home 

early. For which Shep was thankful, as it made it easy to watch 
the cattle. Just as he surmised, the minute the moon appeared over 
the top of the high hill in front of the house and shed its light over 
the barnyard and pasture, Billy Whiskers, Billy Junior, Nannie and 
Daisy slipped off the watch tower, as they called the high straw 
stack on which they slept, and from which vantage point they could 
see all that went on. They made straight for the pasture. Shep 
kept an eye on Billy, saw him lead his family through the gate 
into the pasture, and was a little amazed to find all the cattle fol¬ 
lowed them in groups of two and three. 

“Now what in the world are they up to? I’ll go up on the straw 
stack they just left and see where they go. Not one of them is stop¬ 
ping to take so much as a mouthful of clover, and that is really fine 
clover in their field, and generally they love to munch it when the 
dew is on it as now. So there must be something very exciting ahead 
of them. Now they are going down the hill toward the stream. 
What is that line of black I see coming from the Smith farm? I 
declare it is his cattle, even to the big hogs! There comes another 
line of cattle from the direction of the Jones farm. It must be a big 
party they are having.” 

When all the animals arrived at the edge of the stream where 
stretched the wide beach of sand, Shep could see they were forming 
a great circle. 


1 3 • 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

“What is up, I wonder?” he said over and over to himself. But 
he did not have to wait long to know, for Billy stepped into the cen¬ 
ter of the ring and then out stepped Satan, one of the neighbor’s big, 
coal-black goats, and joined him. After sniffing each other’s noses, 
they backed off a few paces and then rushed toward one another 
with great force. There was a clash of horns, followed with a twist- 
in _ °cks and much side-stepping until Billy had Satan down on 
his knees. After this they separated, each seeking his own particular 



group of animal friends. In less time than it takes to tell, they were 
back in the middle of the ring fighting again. But they did not seem 
to be fighting to hurt one another, but rather to see which could butt 
the harder and down the other. They would advance slowly step 
by step, eyes unwinkingly on the adversary until within a few feet of 
touching noses. Then without a sound one or the other would 
spring forward and they would butt their foreheads together or lock 
horns. The way they would twist their necks one would certainly 
think they would break them. At other times they would stand on 

131 




Billy Whiskers at Home 

their hind legs and push one another forward and backward, strik¬ 
ing out with their fore legs. 

All this time the onlookers pawed the ground in excitement and 
bellowed their pleasure or disgruntlement as their favorite was 
winning or losing. 

Billy won the first round, and all the animals clustered around the 
contestants, complimenting them on their prowess and skill. 

After Billy Whiskers and Satan had taken a drink and waded 
in the stream to cool off, they lay down to watch the next feature on 
the program. This was a test of strength between two Wooded bul ! s, 
one a red Hereford, the other a red and white Durham 'he 
Hereford was ever on the alert but much lighter in weight than the 
Durham, who was of powerful build. But even though he could 
hit the most powerful blow, the alert Hereford was likely to fly 
around and give him a couple punches in the ribs while he was 
slowly getting in position to hook him. It had been agreed they 
were not to run their horns into one another, as this was purely a 
friendly bout, just to exhibit their skill, and indeed it did prove to 
be a most exciting display of strength and quickness. They whirled 
and turned, locked horns and twisted each other’s necks until one 
could almost hear the bones crack. Whenever they locked horns 
and it came to a display of strength, the Durham was away ahead, 
and he would push the Hereford into the stream, but when it came 

132 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

to hooking, as they would have done in a real fight, the Hereford was 
superior, for his long, sharp horns would have made short work of 
the big, clumsy Durham. 

Next in order was a fight between two fat rams with double twisted 
horns, who fought standing facing each other, their big twisted horns 
locked together. They forced each other forward and backward 
across the ring, kicking up the dirt at a great rate. When time was 
called, it was found they could not unlock their horns. In fact, in 
the morning when Mr. Watson found them that way it took both 
him and his hired man quite a while to separate them. 

This fight ended the evening’s performance, which all had enjoyed 
so much that they planned then and there to have a second one a 
week from that night, which was to be for just the younger animals— 
the calves, colts, lambs and kids. Of course the Twins were the 
first to ask to be in it, and their parents saying they could, Billy 
Whiskers promised to give them some lessons to prepare them for 
the event. 

Just before they separated, some one proposed they have an ex¬ 
hibition of jumping and running as well. This was considered a 
good proposal and was accepted unanimously, though every one said 
they knew just who would win those races: Sal Scrugs. She was 
known to be the highest jumper and fleetest runner of all the animals 
far and near. 


133 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

“No, there is Shep,” argued some one. “We must ask him to 
compete with her.” 

Some declared he would say no, while others were sure he would 
enjoy it. So it was left to Billy to approach him on the subject, and 
with many complimentary expressions for those who had partic¬ 
ipated, the animals separated, promising to be on hand at the next 
meeting. 


*34 


CHAPTER XVI 


THE DUCKS GROW DIZZY-HEADED 

HE day after the butting match a laughable thing hap¬ 
pened at the farm. 

A big tub of cider was down in the orchard waiting 
for the kegs to put it in when some ducks on their way 
for a swim in the pond smelt something like rotten apples, a 
food all ducks like very much. They decided to stop and eat 
some. Consequently they flew up on the edge of the tub, and 
seeing it filled almost to overflowing, they thought it would be nice 
to go swimming in anything that smelt so good. Three old mother 
ducks and five young ones jumped in that cider. They tasted it and 
it was so refeshing a draught that they kept drinking as they swam 
about. The more they tasted it, the more they wanted. But pres¬ 
ently they could not tell when they were drinking it and when they 
were not, as they felt queer in the head. Everything seemed to be 
running around like mad; even the wheelbarrows were going around 

135 



Billy Whiskers at Home 

in circles with no person pushing them, while the big barn was sway¬ 
ing as in a gale. 

At last one old duck quacked to another, “Sister, just see how 
crazily everything in the barnyard is acting. Even the barn itself 
looks as if it would topple over.” 

“It certainly does! I was noticing it when you spoke,” said a 
second. 

“We better go over and see what causes it,” suggested the third 
old duck. 

The young ducks, on being asked, preferred to stay where they 
were and swim around. 

“My, what is the matter with this tub? It doesn’t stand still, and 
I cannot get out. It is acting just the same as everything over in 
the barnyard!” 

“It must be we are having some kind of a storm. Perhaps it is a 
radio storm. Not that I ever heard of a radio storm, but I will 
wager there are such things. There are so many new things these 
days, one can’t say there can’t be such a thing, for if they do, there it 
is the next day right before them.” 

“Well, I declare,” exclaimed one old duck as she fell over on her 
side, “this tub rocks so it made me tumble over, and to save my life 
I can’t get back on the right rim of this tub. There are two rims 

136 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

and every time I step on one it is not there. What can be the matter? 
My head feels so dizzy. Does yours?” 

“I should think it did! And my ears ring something dreadful!” 

“There it is again! To save my life I can’t sit up straight with 
this tub running around in circles as it does.” 

“We better make an extra effort to get out of this tub, for it might 
be possible that this yellow fluid has affected us.” 

“Now you have found the 
trouble! The stuff we have been 
drinking is the cause of our 
dizziness, I am sure of it.” 

Just then Shep and the 
hired man came along 
the path. Seeing the 
ducks in the tub, Shep 
tried to frighten them, but they only quacked and then left their bills 
stretched open, too crazy-headed to shut them. The more Shep 
barked at them, the more they quacked and flapped their wings, but 
they could not get out of the tub. When the hired man reached 
them, he nearly died laughing at the queer actions of the ducks. 
He picked them up one after the other and set them on the ground, 
but then they only made him laugh the more for they stepped so 

137 




Billy Whiskers at Home 

high and waddled along with such a rolling gait, their heads held 
to one side in such a peculiar manner, he doubled up with mirth. 

But this was not all of it. He turned over the tub of cider—there 
was nothing else to do after the ducks had been in it. But little did 
he think what a commotion it was going to create among the fowls. 
When the geese came along on their way to the pond and smelled the 
cider and saw it running on the ground in little rivulets, they craned 
their long necks to get a better smell. This second whiff only as¬ 
sured them the liquid was surely made of apples. They began to 
drink all they could catch in their bills as it ran along the hard- 
beaten path. Soon they too were lifting their feet so high that their 
big bodies toppled over and at last they just rolled on the grass, their 
legs sticking straight up in the air, where they lay hissing until the 
hired man came and carried them off to the goose house. Before 
night even the turkeys and chickens had had some of the troublesome 
cider. In consequence the old turkey gobbler nearly gobbled his 
head off as he puffed himself out and went strutting uncertainly 
about the yard. As for the roosters, they crowed and crowed and 
crowed until they fell off the fence from sheer exhaustion. Really 
it was as comical a sight as any one could well imagine to see the 
fowls reeling and staggering around the barnyard in such a ridic¬ 
ulous manner. 

Mr. Watson had several orders for geese, ducks and chickens to 

138 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

be filled the next morning. He generally had a difficult time catch¬ 
ing just the ones he wished to sell, but for a wonder to-night he could 
walk right up to any fowl and pick it up without it so much as lifting 
a wing in flight or making a single outcry. You see the cider had 
made them so stupid they were nearly sound asleep. 


139 




CHAPTER XVII 


THE NEW ELECTRIC WASHER 

NY one who has ever lived in the country and kept tur¬ 
keys and peacocks knows the moment a stranger drives 
by, those fowls give the alarm as surely as a good watch¬ 
dog barks, only they set up a terrible clatter, the pea¬ 
cock by jumping on something high and screeching out his dis¬ 
cordant call that carries a long way, it is so penetrating, and old Mr. 
Turkey Gobbler spreading his tail and wings so wide they drag on 
the ground as he puffs himself out with pride until he looks as if he 
would surely burst. 

Consequently when Hiram, the hired man on the Watson farm, 
heard the racket in the barnyard, he walked to the door to see who 
was coming. There turning in the drive was a delivery wagon 
bringing the new electric washing machine Mr. Watson had bought. 
Hiram put down his pitchfork and went to help the men unload it 
and set it up. Of course, Billy Whiskers, that old Curiosity Shop, 
had to go too, for it would never do to have anything new come to 

141 



Billy Whiskers at Home 


the farm and Billy not know about it. 
Neither would it do to have Billy do or 
see anything Stubby and Button missed. 
And of course when the Twins saw their 
grandfather and their Uncle Stubby and 
Uncle Button going any place, they had 
to go along. So when Hiram thought 
he heard footsteps behind him and turned 
his head to look, what should he see but 
quite a procession tagging behind him. 

“Well, I declare to goodness if that old Billy isn’t the 
most curious animal I ever ran across! He tags me 
from morning until night, so I almost feel I had a tail 
tied to me!” 

‘Oh, Hiram!” called Mr. Watson, “come and 
help us put up the washing machine!” 

“Coming! Coming!” answered Hiram. 

After an hour of pulling, hauling and lifting, 
with every one bossing every one else and stepping 
on one another’s fingers and toes, to say nothing of 
Billy Whiskers adding to the confusion by being 
under their feet, the necessary electric wiring was 
completed and the washing machine was in place. 

142 



Billy Whiskers at Home 

Button had climbed on top of a cupboard in the laundry, thinking 
this would be a fine place from which to see all that went on and 
still escape being kicked or put out. Stubby had run under the table 
and jumped into a clothes basket where he would be out of the way 
and still could watch every move made. As for Billy, he was here, 
there and everywhere, under every one’s feet and running across 
their paths and getting in the way generally, being put out of the 
laundry one minute and returning the next when they were busy over 
the machine. 

At last it was set up and ready to start, and the man who had 
brought it from town walked over to the wall and touched a black 
button. The water began to churn round and round a piece of 
clothing the man had put in the washer to show them how quickly it 
would be washed clean. 

Billy was so interested that he walked straight up to it and stuck 
his nose against the glass case, for what puzzled him most was how 
the water got in the tub when he had seen no one pour it in, and he 
knew the water nearest at hand was away down in the pond at the 
foot of the hill. 

As for Button, he stretched his neck so far over the top of the cup¬ 
board that he nearly toppled off, and Stubby barked in his surprise 
and kept jumping in and out of the basket. In fact, he was so 
nervous he did not know what he was doing. 


H3 


Billy Whiskers at Home 


Swish! Swish! Swish! went the water, becoming all foamy 
and white. 

As Button gazed, the machine stopped and the water grew still. 
Then all of a sudden it began to swish around again, though no 
person was near it. The person nearest the machine was a man 
standing by the wall, his finger on a little black button in the wall, 


while next him stood Hilda, clapping her hands 
ight. You see, she did the 



washing. 


“Now it will be only 
child’s play to do the 
washing, even though we 
do have big tablecloths and 
sheets,” she said. 


W sheets,” she said. 

They were all leaving the laundry and Billy was 
about to go too, when he found himself all tangled 


up with the tube that let the water into the tub and the electric wires 
that furnished the power to run the machine. The first thing he 
knew he felt prickles running all over him, and then a queer, jerky 
feeling as if some one were pulling all the muscles in his body the 
wrong way,—and that is the last he knew for a long time. Billy 
had suffered a shock that knocked him over and made him un¬ 
conscious! 


*44 



MR. WATSON’S HIRED MAN SOON HAD A ROPE AROUND BILLY’S NECK. 

(Page 168) 






























Billy Whiskers at Home 

When Mr. Watson turned to see why Billy did not come, and dis¬ 
covered him stretched on the floor as if dead, he knew not what to 
think until he saw the detached wires. Then he knew Billy had 
suffered a shock of electricity. The men jumped off the wagon and 
with the help they gave, Mr. Watson and Hiram soon had Billy all 
right once more. 

“Mr. Watson, you need not worry. He is not killed for the cur¬ 
rent in these machines is not strong enough to hurt any one, much 
less kill them,” said one of the men. 

That very evening when Billy, his family, Stubby and Button and 
a few friends were resting by the straw stack, they wished to hear 
from Billy’s own lips how a shock of electricity felt. He told 
them: “You haven’t any idea what a peculiar sensation it is. At 
first I felt all prickly, as if some one was sticking me full of needles 
and pins. Then all my muscles began to double up, and that is the 
last I knew about until I found myself on the grass outside the laun¬ 
dry with Mr. Watson and the men working over me. Not a pleasant 
sensation at all. I hope, I assure you, that Hilda never has one. It 
would almost kill her if she did.” 

Just before luncheon that day Stubby and Button had had a very 
exciting experience. They had been coming home from Mr. 
Jones’ farm when they heard a child crying. They looked every¬ 
where, but still they could not see any child, and when they tried 

H5 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

to follow the sound, it first led them in one direction and then in 
another. 

Presently Stubby said, “It seems to me the cry comes from the 
stone quarry. Let’s go and look.” 

So the two ran up the steep side of the quarry and looked down 
into the deep pit half-filled with water. At first they saw noth¬ 
ing. Then they thought they distinguished something white float¬ 
ing on the water close to the opposite side of the pit. 

“Look, Button! You have sharper eyes than I. What do you 
make out that white thing to be over there?” 

“Heavens! It is a child’s face. Did you ever see anything so 
white in all your life?” 

At that moment the child saw Stubby and Button, and began to 
cry anew. 

“Do you hear, Button? From the sound of that cry the child 
is almost exhausted from calling for help and from fright at being 
in the water.” 

“I should think it would be. What are we to do to get it out? 
It is a little boy. I know by his coat, for he raised his arms to 
signal to us.” 

“Here comes a farmer. Let us run down and bark just as he is 
opposite the quarry. I’ll bark and you meow and we will run in 
front of his horse and make such a fuss he will know there must be 

146 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

something the matter in the quarry pit and perhaps he will stop 
and go to see. Let’s hope so, at any rate.” 

The minute they disappeared, the child began to cry more piti¬ 
fully than ever, for of course he thought they had run away and 
left him to his fate. 

Nearer and nearer came the old rattling wagon, the driver 
whistling as hard as ever he could. 

“You see,” said Stubby, “his wagon is making such a rumble he 
would never have heard the child crying.” 

“He is almost here. Now let us start,” said Button. 

Down the steep side of the quarry they plunged pellmell, and 
jumped out before the horses so suddenly they leaped to one side 
of the road and stopped short. It was done so quickly it nearly 
threw the man off the seat. 

“Say, Stub and Button, what did you do that fool thing for?” 

You see the man knew the two very well, for he was Mr. Watson’s 
hired man. 

“You nearly scared the life out of the horses and came near up¬ 
setting me in the bargain. Well, well, will you look at those fool 
animals chasing each other up the steep side of the quarry? Here 
they come down again! And they stand and look at me as if they 
were trying to tell me something. Heigho, if they aren’t going up 
again and looking down into the pit and barking and meowing like 

147 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

mad. Hark! Did I hear a child 
cry?” He put his hand to his ear 
and turned his head in that direction. 

Sure enough, the cry was repeated. 

“Jehoshaphat, I bet a child has 
fallen into the quarry and that is 
what those smart animals are trying to let me know about.” 

With one bound he was out of the wagon and climbing up 
the side of the quarry as fast as he could go, loose stones and dirt 
flying in a shower behind him as he was in such a hurry to reach the 

top. The second he got there, he discovered the pale face of the 

child as it showed so plainly against the wet, black stones. He ran 
around the pit until he was directly over where the child lay. 

“Uncle Hiram, come quick! Come quick! I can’t hang on 
much longer. My fingers are getting numb!” 

You see the man was no other than the little child’s own Uncle. 

Down the steep side of the quarry he 
started, but found he must go 

further along the top and then 
down, as the stones were soft and 
broke under his feet and he feared 
they might injure the child as they 
rolled. 

148 







Billy Whiskers at Home 

When the little fellow saw the man start to go down to him 
again he cried out in fright and dismay: “Oh, Uncle Hiram, 
don’t! Don’t go away and leave me!” 

“Don’t worry, Eddie. Indeed I won’t leave you. I am just 
going over here a little way to find a better and safer place to 
climb down.” 

In fact, he was soon down and walking along a rocky ledge that 
led straight to where the little fellow lay, and in a jiffy he had him 
in his arms and was climbing the steep ascent, the child clasped 
in a close embrace. When they were safely on the wagon, he asked 
the boy how he happened to fall in the pit and he said he was com¬ 
ing home from doing an errand and was walking near the edge 
of the quarry when he saw a beautiful blue flower on the very edge 
and while trying to get it the bank gave way and fell into the water 
in the quarry pit, carrying him down with it. 

“How long had you been there?” 

“Oh, ever and ever so long, Uncle! Seemed most like a year!” 

“I’ll wager it does seem like a year and more to you, and I never 
would have found you if it had not been for Stubby and Button. 
The old wagon was making such a racket and I was whistling so 
loudly I never would have heard you cry above all that noise.” 

Looking down the road he saw a woman who seemed much ex¬ 
cited running in their direction and when they drew near enough 

x 49 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

to distinguish who it was, they found it was Eddie’s mother, look¬ 
ing for him. He had not come back from the errand on which 
she had sent him, telling him to hurry home. As he was an obedient 
son, she feared some ill had befallen him and was searching for 
him. How she cried for joy when she had him in her arms and 
knew he was safe! She declared she wanted to see Stubby and 
Button and pet them and give them the biggest chicken dinner 
they had ever had to show her appreciation. 

“They are such smart animals, I know they will understand every¬ 
thing you say to them, and enjoy and thank you for the dinner,” 
said Mr. Watson’s hired man. “I’ll bring them over with me to¬ 
morrow when I pass your house on my way to the mill.” 

Thus another good deed was added to the long list of those done 
by Stubby and Button as the years went by. 


150 


CHAPTER XVIII 

CATCHING THE THANKSGIVING TURKEY 

T was the night before Thanksgiving rather than Christ¬ 
mas, and in the house all was quiet as a mouse. But 
not so in the barnyard. Everything there was confusion 
and hubbub for the biggest, fattest turkey gobbler of 
the flock was to be captured and killed for the Thanksgiving feast. 
He had lived to see all his flock slain with the exception of a young 
gobbler and three or four turkey hens. Consequently when he saw 
a boy and a man come into the barnyard and walk toward him, 
holding out hands filled with corn and wheat, he had his suspicions. 
He had seen sixty or seventy members of his flock go up to men 
to eat from their hands only to be grabbed by the neck and carried 
off, never to be seen again. It was because of this that when any 
one offered him anything to eat, no matter what it was, he drew 
in his feathers, stuck out his neck and ran for dear life and hid 
until they had left the barnyard. 

It was growing dusk now and he had just fallen into a doze as 



Billy Whiskers at Home 

he rested in his usual roosting place on the lower limb of an old 
oak tree behind the woodpile. Suddenly he was rudely awakened 
by some one catching hold of one of his legs. He roused with a 
start to find it was a big boy trying to capture him. With a spasm 
of fear he flapped his wings and tried to fly to a higher limb, but 
he was unable to do that for the boy grasped one of his legs firmly 
and pulled him back. 

Just then the gobbler spied Billy Whiskers standing by the wood- 
pile and he gobbled for him to aid him. “Save me! Save me, 
Billy!” 

In a flash Billy ran up the woodpile on which the boy was stand¬ 
ing. This started the wood to rolling, and the boy was forced to 
release the turkey’s leg or have his own broken in a fall. 

“Oh, Billy, why can't you mind your own business and not stick 
your nose into what doesn’t concern you?” he exclaimed. 

The moment the old gobbler was released, he tried to decide 
which would be the safer place for him; higher up in the tree or a 
new hiding place altogether. But where would that be? If he 
flew into another tree, they would see him. If he chose the barn, 
they would follow him. Likewise if he ran behind any of the 
straw stacks, they would follow there. 

Oh where, oh where should he go? While the boy was getting 
off the woodpile was his only chance for the man would soon re- 

152 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

turn from chasing the young gobbler and turkey hens. At last he 
decided to run into the barn as there were numerous dark corners 
there where he could hide. Once his mind was made up, it did 



not take long for him to fly out of the tree and, half flying, half 
running, he made his way to the barn. He went to the back door 
as that was out of sight of the man who was chasing the other tur¬ 
keys round and round the barn, over barrels and under fences and 
about pigsties, with Billy Whiskers getting in his way just when 
he reached out to take hold of a fowl and it would escape. The 
man called Billy every name he could think of, and threw stones 
at him too, but what cared he when he was doing his friends, the 
turkeys, a good turn? He could not stand by and hear the pitiful 
call of the turkeys and not try to do something to save them. 

T 53 



















Billy Whiskers at Home 

Once the man succeeded in catching a young gobbler, and had 
him under his arm carrying him away to have his head chopped 
off, when the turkey called, “Billy, save me quickly or it will be 
too late! He is carrying me to the block to chop off my head! 
I have seen all my brothers and sisters go this terrible way. Oh, 
quick, Billy, quick! Do something or it will be too late!” 

Billy baaed back to the poor panic-stricken young turkey, “I will! 
I will save you!” and all the other fowls in the barnyard and even 
the pigs in the pens and the cows standing around chewing their 
cuds called out, “Oh, hurry, Billy, hurry or you will be too late!” 

The man was almost to the fatal block but Billy was creeping 
up still closer and closer to him until he was only six feet away. 
Then with a little bound Billy gave the man a butt that sent man, 
turkey and all away over the block, the fellow falling on his face 
and releasing the turkey as he fell. The moment that turkey 
found itself free it ran toward the barn and quickly disappeared 
in the darkness within. 

The man was so intensely angry at Billy that he picked up a 
club and started in pursuit of him. But he might just as well have 
attempted to catch a whirlwind as Billy when he was on the run. 
However, he chased him away out into the pasture until Billy took 
the path to the lake. Then he realized it was useless to follow 
any further as he would be unable to overtake him before he reached 

154 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

the lake, and he knew if he followed that far Billy would swim it 
and he could not do that in late November with any comfort. 
So back he went to the barnyard grumbling to himself, “Well, if 
I can’t catch that turkey, I will another if I have to stay up all 
night to do it!” 

When he reached the barnyard he heard Mr. Watson and Hiram 
as well as the two boys laughing so he hurried on to see what they 
were finding so funny. He arrived just as it was all over, though 
he did see Hiram shaking himself and picking hay out of his hair 
with one hand as with the other he held out to Mr. Watson the 
big turkey gobbler, dead. Yes, the one that had been up in the 
tree and had run to the barn to hide. He had flown into the mow 
to hide and Hiram had seen a long turkey feather fluttering on 
the hay of the loft as if it had just been dropped. Climbing up 
the ladder, he saw Mr. Turkey trying to hide himself in the hay. 
After a long chase and many a fall for both man and turkey, as 
hay is difficult to run on, Hiram succeeded in catching him. He 
was going toward the ladder to descend to the barn floor and in 
the dim light of the mow he did not see the hay chute. Before 
he knew it, he had walked straight into the opening and had slid 
to the bottom, landing on his head and shoulders, but with the 
turkey still clasped to his breast. In some way the turkey’s neck 
had been twisted in the fall and when they looked at him after 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

Hiram stood up, they found him dead. But he died in a good cause 
for the next day he with two other turkeys made all the family 
and several of their most intimate neighbors happy as they feasted 
on his tender meat thickly covered with rich gravy. 

Such a dinner as that was! The table fairly groaned under the 
load of goodies. Two tables had been put together and they ex¬ 
tended through the dining room into the living room, furnishing 
seats for twenty, to say nothing of a third table spread for the chil¬ 
dren so they would not have to wait until the grown-ups had eaten. 
You see Mrs. Watson thought it cruel to make children wait when 
in all probability they were hungrier than the grown-ups as chil¬ 
dren always have healthy appetites while some adults suffer with 
dyspepsia. There were several servants to wait on the table, as 
Mrs. Watson had seen to that. She did not like to jump up and 
down when she acted as hostess. And neither did she have the 
dinner served in courses, with the exception of the soup and dessert. 

The tables were most tastily decorated with strings of cranberries 
and the dishes were garnished with all sorts of dowers cut from 
vegetables. There were roses cut from beets, white roses formed 
from mashed potatoes, tulips cut out of yellow carrots, and so forth. 
The turkeys were festooned with cranberries and surrounded with 
vegetable flowers. But the most gorgeous thing on the entire table 
was a graceful basket of fruit and flowers combined. Here and 

156 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

there peeked out a yellow grapefruit beside a red, red apple, while 
a bunch of blue or white grapes cuddled next a banana or tan¬ 
gerine, all arranged in a most artistic manner, with a bunch of huge 
Malaga grapes tied to the handle with a bright scarlet ribbon bow. 

This basket was flanked on either side by a little pig roasted whole 
with a red apple in its mouth, while at both ends of the table rested 
the big twenty-pound turkeys browned to a turn. Here and 
there were vegetable dishes heaped high with fluffy mashed 
potatoes sprinkled with paprika. There were also candied sweet 
potatoes half hidden in their candy dip, while sparkling glass 
dishes held molds of cranberries, preserved cherries, pickled 
peaches, candied watermelon rind and many kinds of salted nuts. 
All these things were on the tables at once, including a delectable 
fruit salad. After the table was cleared of these viands, the dessert 
was carried in, and I know all the guests wondered how they could 
cat it. It consisted of mince pie, apple pic, cranberry pie and 
pumpkin pie served with cheese, followed by ice-cream with choc¬ 
olate sauce poured over it, angel cake, chocolate layer cake and nut 
cake, while sweet cider made right on the farm sparkled in the 
glasses and the aroma of the best of coifee arose from the cups. 

“I shall not be able to eat for a week after this dinner, Mrs. Wat¬ 
son,’’ said one of her guests on leaving the table. 

“Oh, yes, you will,” replied the hostess. “Mr, Watson always 

157 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

says the same thing but by seven-thirty he is ready to eat again 
and he says, ‘Did I hear you say, mama (that is what he always 
calls me) that we are not going to have any supper after our late 
dinner? Well, I don’t mind much, but I feel as if I could wash 
down a small piece of cold turkey and a stalk or two of celery.’ 
And I always tell him if he feels that way, to go to the ice-box and 
help himself. Which he does and I can’t see but what he eats as 
heartily as if he had not had such a heavy dinner. But then he 
is so passionately fond of turkey and the things which go with it.” 

After dinner the men were smoking and the ladies were upstairs 
primping and chatting when every one was startled by the most 
terrific banging of tin cans. It sounded as if a whole tin shop was 
being wrecked. 

They all ran to the windows to see what was happening and what 
they saw caused gales of laughter, for there was Billy Whiskers 
running around frantically trying to get the ice-cream freezer off 
his head. He had been nosing around and, discovering the freezer, 
had tasted the salt on the ice. In endeavoring to get more of the 
salt, Billy had upset the whole thing and his horns had been caught 
in the tub that held the freezer and the ice pack. The more he 
tried to get the tub off his head, the more it stuck. 

He tossed his head up and down and tried to bang the tub on 
the ground and smash it, but it was too strongly made to break. 

158 


Billy Whiskers at Home 


The metal bands held it together. Then he rolled over and over, 
but no use. He got up and ran as fast as he could, but being 
unable to see where he was going, the first thing he knew he ran 
straight into the 
little duck pond half 
way down the hill. 

As he went in, he hit 
the edge of 
the tub on the 
concrete rimf 
of the artifi¬ 
cial pond—and he was 
free! But Billy was so disgusted that instead of coming out where 
he leaped in, he swam straight across the pond, climbed out and 
ran down the hill into the woods where he stayed until he recovered 
from his chagrin, for no one saw him until noon the next day. 
Billy could not stand it to have anything or anybody get the better 
of him. 

With the exception of this one slight mishap every person at 
the dinner and every animal and fowl in the barnyard (for they 
had a double portion to eat, too, as it was Thanksgiving) declared 
it was the best Thanksgiving Day they had ever passed. 















CHAPTER XIX 


BILLY BECOMES A MOVIE ACTOR 

ILLY was close beside Mr. Watson’s chair, that gentle¬ 
man sitting under a big elm, his chair tipped back 
against its trunk, a newspaper in his hands, when a 
stranger drove into the yard in a high-powered, bright 
red roadster. He stopped the car and coming up to Mr. Watson, 
said: 

“Have I the pleasure of addressing Mr. Watson?” 

“You have,” Mr. Watson replied. “What can I do for you?” 

“I have come to see if I can buy that fine looking goat beside 
you.” 

“I fear you cannot. We are very fond of this goat, and he has 
been a great pet with us for years. He has been away from us for 
three years but has just returned. Where he was and with whom 
I have no way of finding out. All I know is that one day he dis¬ 
appeared and three years after that returned. He is a most sur¬ 
prisingly smart goat.” 

161 



Billy Whiskers at Home 


“If you do not know where he has been all that time, I think I 
know about part of those three years.” 

“You mean to tell me you think you have 
seen this goat before—while he was away 
from my farm?” 

“I certainly do, and what is 
more, I think I can prove it. 
e you ever felt deep down 
lis hair, around his neck?” 
“Why, no, I never had any 
occasion to do that.” 

“With your permission, 
I believe I can find some¬ 
thing that will prove to 
you that I have seen this 
goat before and, in fact, 
owned him for several 
months.” 

“You surprise me! 
Certainly I give you 
permission to feel around his neck if you wish to do so.” 

In less than a minute, the man had run his fingers through Billy’s 
hair and had brought to view a small but strongly linked gold chain 

162 







Billy Whiskers at Home 

with a round flat disk of gold hanging from it, which bore some 
engraving. 

“Will you kindly read what it says on the disk?” he asked. 

Mr. Watson took it and adjusting his glasses on his nose leaned 
over Billy and read: 


This badge was presented 
to 

Billy Whiskers 

for his bravery in saving the life of a child 
from a burning building 
in the 

town of Plumbville 
on May sixth, in the year 1921 

“This is most astonishing news! But I can well believe it. Billy 
is so smart and so brave. He is absolutely fearless,” said Mr. 
Watson. 

“I suppose you would want quite a high price for him if you 
sold him,” responded the man. 

“Yes, I should, but I haven’t the least idea of selling him. We 
are all too fond of him for that.” 

“I am very much disappointed. But could I not induce you to 
change your mind, if I offered you the largest sum that has ever 
been given for a goat?” 


163 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

“No. Money cannot buy Billy Whiskers. I shall keep him 
until he dies of old age, or I do,” said Mr. Watson. 

“I am more sorry than I can tell you, as I wanted particularly 
to have him act in a high-class movie I am putting on the 
screen. You see when I owned him, or thought I owned him, he 
was my best drawing card in the movies.” 

Mr. Watson began to laugh. It struck him as funny that Billy, 
who had done nearly everything, to be sure, had also been in the 
movies. “But when I think of it, I don’t know why he should not 
be a success in the movies, for he was a first-class actor in the cir¬ 
cus for two or three years,” he said. 

“Mr. Watson, if you could only see the pleasure he gives to little 
children when he is acting in the movies, I am sure you would let 
me have him. The films he is in are shown at orphan asylums, 
reform schools, charity fairs and so on.” 

“Oh, is that so? Well, I certainly like to give pleasure to poor 
little orphans. Tell you what I will do. I’ll loan him to you, but 
I won’t sell him to anyone.” 

“You are just the big-hearted man I thought you were, Mr. 
Watson!” exclaimed the caller. “And I thank you for the loan of 
him. We will take the best of care of him. In fact, he will have 
a caretaker who does nothing but look after his health and com¬ 
fort. Why, when I had him before, I had his life insured and a 

164 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

veterinary to look after his health and to oversee his food. He 
was bathed and his hair combed and perfumed as if he was a hu¬ 
man being, while he had a big ten by ten foot box stall all to him¬ 
self, and rode in a limousine to and from the studio. Oh, I can 
tell you he was treated like a king, and he will have the same treat¬ 
ment again. 

“If you would like to hear, I will tell you the special stunt we 
want him to do now. Picture to yourself a mountain fastness with 
two high peaks, between them a deep cleft or cut thousands of 
feet deep. On one side stands Billy with a young baby strapped 
to his back, the mother standing beside him wringing her hands 
in agony as she is about to make him leap across the chasm. She 
has been kidnaped by bandits and carried into the mountains. 
They did not know she had a baby under her shawl when they 
kidnaped her, and when they made the discovery they were going 
to kill the child, but she thought of this way of saving the baby’s 
life. You see the goat belonged to her next-door neighbor in the 
village at the foot of the mountain, and the mother was sure the 
goat would take it home.” 

“You don’t think Billy will take that part, now do you?” asked 
Mr. Watson. 

“I know he will, for I have seen him do much more difficult 
parts.” 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

“Well, if that is the kind ot thing he does, I certainly want to 
see him act for the movies,” said Mr. Watson. 

“You certainly shall. When the first film is put on, I will send 
you a pass book with enough tickets in it to take your family and 
intimate friends. Now I must be going, or I shall be unable to 
reach Chicago by nightfall. And if you have no objection, I will 
take Billy right along with me in the car. There isn’t much room 
in this roadster, but I know he has ridden in roadsters before 
and enjoys it and so I will have no difficulty keeping him in the 
car. You may be interested to know we make all our films at the 
Essenay Studios in Chicago.” 

Billy had been listening to all the two men had said, but when 
he heard he was to be taken away from his family then and there, 
he jumped to his feet and went bounding to the stable yard to tell 
them. For how awful it would be for him to be carried off and 
not have a chance to tell them where he was going! He was glad 
he was not going to be sold, though to be loaned was almost as 
bad as there was no knowing how long the man would keep him. 

“Jehoshaphat!” exclaimed Mr. Watson. “One would think he 
understood what we were saying, for he lay there as quiet as a 
mouse until we spoke of taking him away and then he fled.” 

“I expect he is tired of being away from home as you say he has 
just returned after nearly a three-year absence. He surely is smart 

166 


Billy Whiskers at Home 

and I really believe he understands almost everything he hears. I 
know we all thought so at the studio when he was with us.” 

“I am afraid we will have a time to catch him,” said Mr. Wat¬ 
son. “There he is in the barnyard in the midst of a crowd. I 
believe he is telling them he is going to be taken away, for see how 
downhearted Nannie looks, and the way she hangs her head shows 
she is unhappy. The minute he sees us start for the barnyard he 
will run away and we will be unable to capture him.” 

“I have a plan. I will drive away, go to town and have my 
luncheon, and he will think I have departed for good and all. 
Then while I am away, you try to shut him in the barn and have 
him ready for me on my return, which will be right after luncheon.” 

“I am sorry you have to go, for I was thinking of having the 
pleasure of your company at my own table and having you tell us 
what Billy did in the movies.” 

“I am very sorry I cannot accept your kind invitation, but I have 
a little business in the town before I go back to Chicago.” 

After Mr. Swan, the movie man, had gone, Mr. Watson went in 
the house to tell his wife about Billy and how he had loaned him 
to Mr. Swan to act in the movies for a little while. “But how to 
capture the foxy old fellow is more than I know,” he concluded. 

“You will have a difficult time of it, for he will be suspicious of 
you for a few days now,” replied his wife. 

167 


Billy Whiskers at Home 



“I have it!” exclaimed Mr. Watson. “I’ll pick a bushel of car¬ 
rots that he loves so dearly, and take them into the barn, where I 
shall leave them and go on about my business, never so much as 
looking in his direction. And I shall be greatly surprised and dis¬ 
appointed if when I am out of sight, he does not go straight to the 
barn to get some. When I know he is in the barn, I will slip around 
and shut the door, and then I shall have him safe enough.” 

_ ^ Everything proceeded 

\ ' splendidly up to closing the 

J^**'*'' barn door. But the minute 'Billy 
\ ^5 heard it slam he suspected foul play and 
A without a moment’s delay he rushed through 
the barn to an open door on the opposite 
side, and through this he went like a shot, 
_ running to a little shed that sheltered 
the mowing machine in winter. 
It was dark as pitch in there, which he knew would aid him if no 
one saw him enter. But alas for Billy! Mrs. Watson had been 
watching her husband’s maneuvers from the sitting room window, 
and quickly came out to tell her husband where Billy was hiding. 
Then Mr. and Mrs. Watson and their hired man all crept up to the 
shed and had Billy cornered like a rat in a trap before he was aware 
of it. Mr. Watson and his hired man soon had a rope around his 

168 



Billy Whiskers at Home 

neck and were leading him out of the shed when Mr. Swan returned. 
He drove right into the barnyard and Billy was forced to jump into 
the car where he was securely tied. Then amidst the fluttering 
of fowls and the distressed baaing of his family, handsome Billy 
Whiskers was driven off to become a movie actor in Chicago. 


THE END 


The 


Billy Whiskers Series 



By 

Frances 

Trego 

Montgomery 



The antics of frolicsome Billy Whiskers, that adventuresome goat Mrs. Montgomery writes 
about in these stories make all the boys and girls chuckle—and every story that is issued about 
him is pronounced by them “better than the last” 


BOUND IN BOARDS 


TITLES m SERIES 

1. Billy Whiskers 

2. Billy Whiskers* Kids 

5. Billy Whiskers, Junior 
a. Billy Whiskers* Travels 

6. Billy Whiskers at the Circus 
£. Billy Whiskers at the Fair 

Billy Whiskers* Friends 
g. Billy Whiskers, Jr., and His Chuma 
9. Billy Whiskers* Grandchildren 
ao. Billy Whiskers* Vacation 
31. Billy Whiskers Kidnaped 
3.2. Billy Whiskers* Twins 

33. Billy Whiskers in an Aeroplane 

34. Billy Whiskers in Town 

35. Billy Whiskers in Panama 
37. Billy Whiskers at the Exposition 

18. Billy Whiskers Out West 

19. Billy Whiskers in the South 

20. Billy Whiskers in Camp 

21. Billy Whiskers in France 

22. Billy Whiskers* Adventures 

23. Billy Whiskers in the Movie® 

24. Billy Whiskers Out for Fun 

25. Billy Whiskers’ Frolics 

26. Billy Whiskers at Home 
COVER IN COLORS 

PROFUSE TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS 

FULL-PAGE DRAWINGS IN COLORS 


THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY —AKRON, OHIO 
























The Billy Whiskers Game 


No. 280 



BILLY WHISKERS BOOKS 

THERE’S A LAUGH ON EVERY PAgI 

The same delighted youngsters (and their 
parents too) will play the new board game 
where Billy DOES all the things the 
stories tell. 

THERE’S A LAUGH AT EVERY PLAY 

The Billy Whiskers Game 


"The Game’s The Thingl” 






















BOOKS BY FRANCES TREGO MONTGOMERY 


The Wonderful Electric Elephant 

“A new and fascinating sort of fairy story.”— Salt Lake Tribune. 

“A book in which youth will take keen pleasure.”— The Book - 
seller. 

By a fortunate chance Harold Fredericks comes into possession 
of a wonderful mechanical elephant so ingeniously contrived that it 
will pass for a real animal under even the closest inspection. The 
interior is fitted up luxuriously, affording the finest accommodations 
for Harold and the traveling companion he secures by another lucky 
chance. The boy or girl wanting something new in the story line is 
sure to find it in this chronicle. 



CLOTH BOUND, 12 MO, PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED, WITH JACKET 



On a Lark to the Planets 


“This sprightly author holds the record for inventiveness.”— Philadelphia 
Item. 

“The colored illustrations are a feature of delight.”— Grand Rapids Herald. 

“As a book for children, nothing could be more desirable. It is an assur¬ 
ance of happiness for any young person to be the possessor of this charming 
story.” That is the verdict of one critic passing on the sequel of “The Won¬ 
derful Electric Elephant,” which follows the further fortunes of Harold and 
lone as they travel to the planets. 


BOUND IN CLOTH, 12 MO, HANDSOMELY ILLUSTRATED, WITH JACKET 


Frances and the Irrepressibles 
al Buena Vista Farm 

“Told with a freshness and vivacity that never fails.”— Charles¬ 
ton News and Courier. 

Seven boys and as many girls spend a long summer on a 
beautiful farm and because of the pranks of those merry weeks 
they are dubbed “The Irrepressibles.” And, best of all, the book 
is filled to brimming over with pictures of these real boys and girls. 

ILLUSTRATIONS REPRODUCED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS, CLOTH BOUND 



THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY - AKRON. OHIO 







































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